Tony Drago

Tony Drago

Born	22 September 1965 (1965-09-22) Valletta, Malta
Sport country	Malta
Nickname	The Tornado The Maltese Falcon The Boss
Professional	Snooker: 1985–2008; 2009– Pool: 2000–
Highest ranking	10 (1998/99)
Current ranking	57
Career winnings	£1 million in snooker; €132,562.98 in pool
Highest break	147 (2002 B&H Championship)
Century breaks	114
Tournament wins
Minor-ranking	1
Non-ranking	1

Tony Drago (born 22 September 1965 in Valletta, Malta) is a professional snooker and pool player from Malta. He won the 2003 World Pool Masters Tournament beating Hsia Hui-kai 8–6 and also reached the quarter finals of the World Snooker Championship. In 2008, Drago won the Predator International 10-ball Championship, beating Francisco Bustamante 13–10.

Snooker career

Drago's highest snooker world rankings position was number ten (in 1998). He has reached two major finals – the Mita/Sky World Masters in 1991 (losing to Jimmy White), and the International Open in 1997 (his only ranking event final, and his first run past a quarter-final beaten by Stephen Hendry). He reached the quarter-finals of the World Championship in 1988. He has appeared in the tournament 11 times more, most recently in 2004/2005, with five further last sixteen runs. He lost to Matthew Stevens in three successive years – 8–13 in the last 16 in 1999, 2–10 in the 2000 first round, and 1–10 in the 2001 first round.

After failing to qualify for the 2004 World Championships, Drago entered a decline in snooker. He dropped out of the top 32 of the rankings a year later, and after losing to Issara Kachaiwong in his opening qualifier for the 2008 World Championship, he dropped off the tour.

In 2009 Drago won the EBSA International Open, which give him the chance to return for the 2009/2010 season. He reached the third qualifying round of the Shanghai Masters, Grand Prix and UK Championship. He then qualified for the Welsh Open, by defeating Simon Bedford (5–3), Peter Lines (5–2), Jimmy Michie (5–2) and Gerard Greene (5–2), where he played against Ryan Day in the first round, but he lost 4–5. In the China Open qualifying Drago defeated Lee Page (5–2), John Parrott (5–2), Anthony Hamilton (5–4) and Stephen Lee (5–2) to qualify for the televised stages of the China Open. After a solid 2009/2010 season, he got a place in the top 64 and finished 54th.

Drago again had an outstanding season, climbing 8 places to finish at 46 in the 2010/2011 World Snooker rankings. This means that potentially Drago will only need to win two qualifying matches to reach the final stages of ranking events.

Pool career

Drago's first major pool win was the 2003 World Pool Masters, which came just a few weeks after a run to the semi-finals of that year's World Pool Championship

Drago was member of the winning European team at the 2007 and 2008 Mosconi Cup. At 2007 in Las Vegas, Drago won all of his single matches which earned him the Most Valuable Player Award.

In 2008, Drago won the Predator International 10-ball Championship, beating Francisco Bustamante 13–10.

Accomplishments

In 1993 he recorded the fastest ever best-of-9-frames snooker victory by beating Sean Lanigan in just thirty-four minutes at the 2nd leg of the Strachan Challenge. He also holds the record for the fastest best-of-17 match, beating Joe O'Boye 9–0 in 81 minutes at the 1990 UK Championship. Conversely, he lost 4–13 against Ronnie O'Sullivan in the second round in 1996 in just 167 minutes and 33 seconds, an all-time Crucible record and less than 9 minutes per frame. In the 1996 UK Championship he made a century break in just three minutes and thirty-one seconds against John Higgins. In the third round of the Fidelity Unit Trusts International he won the fifth frame 62–0 in just 3 minutes.

Playing style

His combination of exceptionally fast play and emotional temperament has made him a popular character in snooker, although he was famously criticised by Steve Davis for hurling his cue at the table and storming out of the arena following his 1–5 quarter final defeat to Mark Bennett in the 1996 Grand Prix, with Drago later accusing his opponent of bad sportsmanship, because the latter had twice in the match suggested that Drago missed the object ball deliberately while snookered. Similarly, he became visibly angry with Peter Ebdon during their second round match in the 2003 World Championship, in which Ebdon repeatedly left the arena between frames. Drago took this as an attempt to disrupt the flow of his game, but apologised publicly when he later found out that Ebdon had been ill during the match.

Drago is known for his consistently high-speed play, similar to pool players Lou Butera of the United States and Luc Salvas of Canada, or snooker's Ronnie O'Sullivan. His style has earned him the nickname "the Tornado" and in more recent times has been known among the pool community as the "Maltese Whippet" (due to another player using the Tornado nickname in pool).

Currently Drago plays with a John Parris cue.

Tournament wins

Snooker

Minor-ranking

• Strachan Challenge – 1993 (leg 3)

Non-ranking

• Guangzhou Masters – 1996

Amateur

• Malta Amateur Championship – 1984
• EBSA International Open – 2009

Pool

• World Pool Masters – 2003
• Mosconi Cup – 2007 & 2008
• French Open – 2008
• Predator International 10-ball Championship – 2008

External links

• Official website
• Tony Drago – results & statistics at CueTracker.net
• Profile on World Snooker
• Profile on Global Snooker
• Profile on Pro Snooker Blog
• Profile on World Pool Masters