Samuel Bartolo has won his third consecutive Knock Out after beating Charles Aquilina 4-2 in the final.

By virtue of his success, Bartolo has earned the right to represent Malta in the Table Football World Cup, to be held in Rotterdam in September.

The Malta Knock Out involved four matches in the preliminary round leading to the final stages. In the opening round, Hansel Mallia lost 2-0 to Mark Gauci, currently Malta's top player.

Gauci then recorded an easy 5-0 win over Darren Bezzina to advance to the semi-finals. In the quarter-finals, Bartolo met Massimo Cremona, Malta's top-ranked player in the world. A keenly-contested match went into extra time with Bartolo emerging 4-3 winner.

In the other matches, Aquilina had the better of Derek Conti 3-1 while Darren Carabott saw off Keith Farrugia 2-0. In the first semi-final, Bartolo ended Carabott's title hopes after beating him 4-1.

The other semi, between Aquilina and Gauci, ended in a 3-1 win for the former.

In the final, Bartolo was already 3-0 up by half-time.

Aquilina tried to hit back but his efforts failed to trouble Bartolo who won 4-2 to secure the KO trophy as well as the honour of being the first Maltese nomination for this year's World Cup.

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