Alen Matic from the Republic of Ireland became only the fourth man in Irish snooker history to reach an IBSF World Masters Semi Final here at the 2015 IBSF World Amateur Snooker Championships in Hurghada, Egypt.
Alen beat Richard Peric from Australia 4 frames to 3 in a 5hr 30min battle that saw Alen go 3-0 down but Matic fought his way back into the match to win the next four frames for an historic victory and follow in the footsteps of Joe Delaney and Mark Tuite who had previously made the Semi Final stage.
Alen then played the defending World Champion Phisit Chandsri from Thailand in the best of 9 frames in the World Semi Final. Alen played good but his Thai opponent was in great form knocking in breaks 46, 42, 60, 76 and 86 to win 5 frames to nil.
Alen should be so proud of his achievement here in Egypt and I hope this performance inspires all our Masters to qualify and play in these major championship and hopefully next time we can win this title in the future. Well done Alen !!!!
Men’s Championship
Unfortunately earlier in the day Greg Casey was beaten by Luckas Kleckers from Germany 6 frames to 4 in a hard Q-Final battle. Greg lost the opening two frames on the pink and went 0-4 down but the Irishman managed to win the fifth frame. His German opponent won the sixth to go 5-1 up and one frame away from victory. The cork man turned on the style with breaks of 45, 94 and 55 to close the gap to 4-5 but Kleckers won the tenth frame and the match 6 frames to 4.
Greg played fantastic in this championship and everyone is so proud of him. Greg would like to thank everyone for their support especially Tomas Singelton from Supervalu in Hollyhill for his sponsorship.
All the players would like to thank everyone at home for the fantastic support as this motivated them to achieve these marvellous results. As National Coach I want to thank all the Irish players for their commitment as it was a pleasure to be the coach at this event to support and guide them.
Well done Team Ireland !!!!!!!
