Congratulations to Scotland’s Anthony McGill who has today won his first event in the PIOS with a 6-0 whitewash of Farakh Ajaib…
Anthony McGill 6-0 Farakh Ajaib
117(60,49)-1, 103(102)-24, 70-42, 66-46, 75(47)-29, 69-6
After narrowly missing out on qualification for the 96 man professional circuit last season, 18-year-old Scot Anthony McGill is now very well placed to qualify for 2010/11 following victory in the fifth event of the ongoing PIOS today.
Though he received a bye through to the third round of the event, Ant’s path to the final was far from straightforward as from there he had to defeat a former professional player in every round up until the final. In particular his victories over 2008 European U-19 Champion Stephen Craigie and the newly crowned 2009 IBSF World champion Alfie Burden were impressive scalps before he came through a deciding frame against Jamie O’Neill on Thursday.
His opponent in the final was Farakh Ajaib, a player who can often be found competing in the Preston and District Snooker (EDIT: not Sunday as originally stated!) League for the Elite B team alongside the likes of Stuart Pettman and Shokat Ali. His run to the final was just as impressive as he defeated Shokat 4-2 in the last 32, event four finalist Jak Jones in the last 16 and then former professional Vinnie Muldoon 5-4 having at one staged trailed 4-0!
Though the final proved to be one step too far for Farakh, he does at least climb up to number 17 in the current PIOS rankings, 110 points off a top eight place.
For Anthony though his victory sees him move into fourth place behind Liam Highfield, Jack Lisowski and Jamie Jones with 560 points. While you can never be certain, hopefully he will not need too many more wins to confirm his place among the big boys next season…
Click here to view all of the results from this week’s Event Five.