Australian Billiards & Snooker Council

News

James Mifsud Reaches Quarters
29 Aug 2002

Victoria's James Mifsud has narrowly missed reaching the semi finals of the World Under 21 Snooker Championship in Latvia, going down 6-5 in a match against fourth seeded Indian Pankaj Advani. Mifsud qualified second in his group, losing only to the number five seed before the event, Ricky Walden.

Fellow Victorian Adrian Ridley went through his group undefeated, and was the only unseeded player to do so. This gave Ridley the fifth seeding in the final section, but the draw placed him against Mifsud in the second round, with Mifsud the victor 5-4.

In the quarter final match against Advani, Mifsud was down 2-0 but hit back with a 75 break to take the third frame. Looking in danger of a 4-1 deficit with Advani making a break of 57 in the fifth frame, Mifsud snatched the frame with a 78 clearance. He then levelled at 3-3 and the next four frames went blow for blow, but Advani clinched the match in the deciding frame to advance to the semi finals.

NSW's Shannon Dixon faced some stiff competition in the round robin, with two century makers in his group. While the scorebook may say he lost 5 of his seven matches, three of these were 4-3 and so could easily have swung the other way to produce a very different result.