The group stage of the World Snooker Championship, organised by the World Snooker Federation and being held in Sofia, Bulgaria, continued on Monday, with Chris Peplow emerging as the only Maltese player to register a victory among the four in action.

Peplow secured his second successive win to move to the top of Group X. The Maltese cueist recovered well after losing the opening frame against Thailand’s Lomnaw Issarangkun Na Ayuttaya, taking control from the second frame onwards. He produced a fine 63-point break to clinch the second frame and went on to dominate the next two, giving his opponent few opportunities as he sealed a 3–1 victory. The frame scores were 30–62, 65(63)–30, 61–9 and 76–9.

The remaining Maltese players in action—Aaron Busuttil, Alex Borg and Chris Camilleri—were unable to add to the country’s tally of wins on the third day of competition.

Busuttil suffered his second defeat of the championship, narrowly losing 3–2 to 15-year-old Chinese prospect Wang Xinzhong, who reached the quarter-finals of the Junior Championship last week. After the match went to a deciding frame, Wang produced a superb 105-point break to clinch victory. He narrowly missed extending the break further after potting all 15 reds, with the black ball jumping out of the pocket.

Elsewhere, veteran Alex Borg went down 3–0 against Northern Ireland’s Joel Connolly, while Chris Camilleri recorded his second loss of the tournament after a 3–1 defeat to Mongolia’s Ganzorig Soyolsuren.

All seven Maltese players will be back in action on Tuesday, with the following fixtures scheduled:

09:00 – Group X: Chris Peplow vs Vladut Ciuche (Romania)
11:00 – Group AE: Xavier Rizzo vs Simon Blackwell (England)
13:00 – Group C: Chris Camilleri vs Matvei Lagodzinschii (Ukraine)
13:00 – Group AM: Alex Borg vs Nikita Bazilevics (Latvia)
15:00 – Group F: Joseph Casha vs Steven Hughes (England)
15:00 – Group I: Brian Cini vs Wayne Brown (England)
17:00 – Group Q: Aaron Busuttil vs Manuel Ederer (Germany)