Alex Borg

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Alex Borg
Alex Borg
birthday 5th June 1969 (age 51)
nationality MaltaMalta Malta
professional 1991–1997, 1998/99, 2001/02, 2005–2007, 2013–2015, 2016–2018, since 2019
Prize money £ 58,519 (as of August 31, 2020)
Highest break 135
Century Breaks 15 (as of August 31, 2020)
Main tour successes
World championships -
Ranking tournament victories -
Minor tournament victories -
World rankings
Highest WRL place 80 (2006)
Current WRL location 125 (as of August 17, 2020)

Alex Borg (born June 5, 1969 ) is a Maltese snooker and pool player from Mellieħa . He is 2-time European and 13-time Maltese champion and played professional snooker for 14 years.

Career

Beginnings and professional years in the 1990s

Alex Borg learned snooker from his father, with whom he went to play at a club where he lived. Even as a youth he was one of the best players in his country and in 1987 he was in the final of the Maltese championship for the first time , where he lost to Joe Grech . In 1990 and 1991 he lost to Paul Mifsud . He also competed in international amateur competitions and reached the quarter-finals of the U21 World Cup twice ( 1988 and 1990 ). When the professional tour was opened to all players in 1991, Borg also entered professional tournaments. Due to the high number of participants, he had to go through numerous qualifying rounds, but in the first year he reached the bottom 128 at the European Open. The following year he made it one round at the International Open , two more times he reached the bottom 128, including at the World Championship , where he lost to Dominic Dale 4:10. thus he was among the top 200 in the world rankings .

In the 1993/94 season he was twice in the last 96 and beat Michael Judge and Marcus Campbell , among others . But there was no further progress when he only reached the last 128 at the Welsh Open the following year . The 1995/96 season was all the more successful , in which he reached the finals of the last 64 in a ranking tournament at the Grand Prix for the first time in his career. At the 1995 Malta Grand Prix , a professional invitation tournament, he defeated the world number 12. Nigel Bond 5-4 and reached the quarterfinals. Other notable players he beat this season included Danny Fowler and Matthew Couch . With a win over Barry Pinches , he reached the bottom 128 at the Asian Classic early next season , but it was the only time he got that far this year. All of these results were not enough for significant progress in the world rankings and so he did not get past 164th place during this time. Since 1997, however, a limitation of 128 players for the big tournaments was again introduced, he lost the right to participate and had to compete in the second-rate UK tour . After all, he reached the round of 32 twice and played on the Main Tour again after reopening in 1998/99 . For the second time he reached a main tournament at the Grand Prix after a 5-3 victory over Neal Foulds , still number 34 in the world. But it was the only good result of the season and so he lost his professional status again in 1999.

Successes as an amateur and main tour from the 2000s

In addition to the professional tournaments, he continued to take part in the national championship, and after he had lost again in the finals against Mifsud and Grech in 1996 and 1997, he won his first Maltese championship title in 1998 with an 8: 7 win over Joe Grech. From 2000 to 2016 Alex Borg dominated the national snooker, 16 times in a row he was in the final of the Maltese championship and then he won the title 12 times. He was also one of the most successful amateurs in Europe. At the European Amateur Championship he reached the semi-finals in 1997 and the final in 1998 , but lost both times clearly against the Icelander Kristján Helgason . In 2003 he reached the semi-finals again, the following year he was in the final for the second time after 1998 and lost almost 6: 7 against Mark Allen . In 2005 he won the title against Kristján Helgason for the first time and a year later he defended it against Jeff Cundy . In the following years he repeatedly reached the elimination rounds of the EM, but also the amateur world championship . In 2014, he and Duncan Bezzina won the European team championship for Malta. He had his greatest successes without winning the title as a wildcard player at the Malta Grand Prix. In 1997 he beat world number four Mark Williams 5: 3 and then offered John Higgins in the semi-finals to 4: 4 before losing 4: 6. In 1998 he defeated Higgins, who had now risen to number 1, and then lost to second in the world Stephen Hendry with 2: 6.

Thanks to the first European title, he returned to the Main Tour in the 2005/06 season and had his most successful professional year. In the UK Championship he reached the last 64, as well as in the World Cup , where he beat two top 64 players with Simon Bedford and Jimmy Michie . Nevertheless, he only reached number 80 in the world rankings and only stayed on the tour thanks to a wildcard from the professional association WPBSA . But just a top 64 result in the second year at the Welsh Open was n't enough to stay professional. Attempts to get back on the tour via the Pontin's International Open Series or the Q School failed. In 2010 he only failed in the final of the EBSA International Play-Off . In 2013, however, he returned again because the IBFS World Amateur Association had nominated him. He had previously reached the semi-finals at the Amateur World Cup. In the 2013/14 season , however, it remained with individual victories in the small PTC tournaments. The world championship stood out again , where he was once again among the last 64 with victories over James Wattana and Marcus Campbell , number 28 in the world rankings. Again he reached number 80 in the world rankings. In the following year, however, he came only three times in ranked tournaments in round 2 and lost his professional status again. In 2016, at the age of 46, he tried again through Q School . He defeated Barry Pinches and won the decisive game against Alexander Ursenbacher , which he secured two more years on the Main Tour. Except for the snooker shoot-out 2018 , he never got beyond the second round, which is why this interval ended with the renewed loss of professional status.

In addition to snooker, Borg also plays pool . In the World Cup of Pool ( 9-Ball ), which has been held since 2006 , he regularly participates with Tony Drago as Team Malta.

Alex Borg is also the national coach of Malta.

successes

Ranked tournaments

Invitation tournaments

Qualifying tournaments

Amateur tournaments

  • European Champion ( 2005 , 2006 ; Finalist: 1998 , 2004 )
  • Mediterranean Snooker Cup Champion (2005)
  • Maltese champion (13 ×: 1998, 2001, 2003–2009, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015)
    • Finalist (10 ×: 1987, 1989, 1990, 1996, 1997, 1999, 2002, 2010, 2013, 2016)

team

  • EBSA European Team Snooker Champion (2004, 2005)
  • Continental Team Cup Champion (1999, 2000)

swell

  1. ↑ a b c Profile of Alex Borg at CueTracker (as of August 12, 2018)
  2. ^ Q School 2011 - Alex Borg Interview , Maximum Snooker, May 14, 2011
  3. ↑ a b National Snooker Championship - Roll Of Honor , Malta Billiards & Snooker Association, accessed on August 12, 2018
  4. ↑ Malta - 2014 Mens Team Champions ( Memento from April 16, 2016 in the Internet Archive ), EBSA.TV News, March 29, 2014
  5. ↑ Alex Borg on World Snooker Main Tour , Sport in Malta, July 18, 2013
  6. ↑ a b c Qualified EBSA Coaches 2013 - 2014 ( Memento from April 16, 2016 in the Internet Archive ), European Billards & Snooker Association, accessed on April 24, 2014
  7. ↑ a b EBSA Past Champions , Malta Billiards & Snooker Association, accessed April 24, 2014

Web links

Commons : Alex Borg  - collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Borg, Alex
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Maltese snooker player
DATE OF BIRTH 5th June 1969
PLACE OF BIRTH Malta