Malta’s Alex Borg beat Brendan O’ Donoghue of Ireland 5-4 yesterday to reach the quarter-finals of the European Snooker Championship being held in Lublin, Poland.

Unfortunately, Simon Zammit was knocked out by Van Velthoven of Belgium 1-5 in the last-16 stage.

Both Maltese players finished second in their respective groups winning six of their seven qualifying matches, losing only to the No. 1. Four players advanced from each of the eight groups.

In Group D, Borg lost his only match against Craig Steadman (England). Borg, however, registered good victories over Anthony Brabin (Cyprus), Daniel Kandi (Denmark), Denys Vashchuk (Ukraine), Dima Dravkin (Israel), Rafal Gorecki (Poland) and Jukka Haapakoski (Finland).

Simon Zammit was in Group H where he only lost to former world champion Darren Morgan of Wales in his final match. Earlier he had registered good wins against Henrikas Strolis (Lithuania), Knut Kvaal Pedersen (Norway), Marcin Nitschke (Poland), Martin McCrudden (Republic of Ireland), Oleg Ivanisevic (Croatia) and Vitali Mukhliado (Belarus).

In the Round of 32, Zammit beat Anthony Brabin of Cyprus 4-2, while Alex Borg also won 4-3 against Marcin Nitschke of Poland to qualify with the last 16.

Borg’s next opponent is Andrew Pagett of Wales, who beat Van Hove 5-0.

Poland international Open

Meanwhile, before this tournament, the two Maltese players took part in the Polish International Open starting the the round of 32.

Alex Borg managed to reach the semi-finals where he lost to eventual winner Stefan Mazrocis of Poland 4-2.

Apart from a trophy, the winner also earned a berth in the European Play-Off Main tour nomination.

Earlier, Borg had eliminated Shaul Eliau 3-0, Farhan Mirza 3-0 and Krzystof 4-0.

Simon Zammit had defeated Sacha Lippe 3-2 to reach the Last 16 where he lost to Richard McHugh 3-1.