Busuttil and Casha bounce back with comfortable wins in Sofia

Busuttil-Casha-1024x614 Busuttil and Casha bounce back with comfortable wins in Sofia

SPORTS-WIDE-BANNER_PLAYRESPONSIBLY-1870x350-1-1024x192 Busuttil and Casha bounce back with comfortable wins in Sofia

Aaron Busuttil and Joseph Casha registered convincing victories on Sunday as Malta picked up two more wins on the second day of the group stage at the World Snooker Championship, organised by the World Snooker Federation (WSF) in Sofia, Bulgaria.

Both players responded strongly after losing their opening matches, wrapping up their encounters in under an hour with straightforward 3–0 successes.

Busuttil overcame Morocco’s Mostafa El Younsi with frame scores of 65–27, 80–17 and 78–1, while Casha defeated England’s Thiru Siva 62–1, 65–7 and 59–15. Casha also produced a 50-point break during the second frame.

However, it was a tougher day for Brian Cini and Xavier Rizzo, who were both beaten after winning on the opening day.

Cini went down 3–1 to England’s Aidan Murphy, missing a golden opportunity to force a decider in a dramatic fourth frame. Murphy built an early 40–0 lead, but Cini fought back to level at 53–53. A series of missed snookers on the brown by Murphy handed Cini a 16-point advantage, and even after further errors from the Englishman, the Maltese player failed to capitalise when he missed a pot from the spot. Despite Cini leading 74–61, Murphy cleared the final three colours to seal the frame and the match.

Rizzo was edged out 3–2 by England’s Marcos Dayao, who opened in style with a 93-point break to take the first frame. Rizzo responded by winning the second, but Dayao regained the lead in the third. The Maltese teenager showed great character in the fourth, recovering from 52–0 down to win the frame and take the match to a decider. Dayao proved too strong in the final frame, compiling a 54-point break to close out the contest.