Drago delights fans to stroll to the semi-finals

A relaxed but delighted Tony Drago was glad to add the scalp of Australian Quinten Hann, no. 14, when beating him 5-1 late last night to set up a semi-final place against Jimmy White today.

Playing confidently throughout, the Maltese number one was rarely in danger of losing his grip on the match.

He got his angles right most of the time and punished his opponent with some precision potting and excellent control of the cueball.

"So far this was a fine tournament for me and now that I'm here I want to win two more matches and make up for when I'm given some stick by the expectant Maltese fan," Drago said.

"Today I felt confident, a kind of feeling which makes me get the advantage on my side when I now meet White. It should be a great match."

Drago won a cliff-hanging first frame on a black-to-win situation. After Hann had cleared the colours to level the score on 63 each. The Valletta-born player was leading 63-12 at one point but after a series of errors from both cueists, particularly from the Maltese player, the Australian managed to crawl back into the reckoning before losing the first frame to Drago on the black.

A mini-break of 39 enabled the local cueist to clear the table with two reds left, before tucking in the second frame.

A 9-40 deficit was turned into a 63-40 win by Drago who kept his cool in the next frame to build a three-nil lead. At this point the Australian looked fidgety.

Superb strokes helped Drago to build up a 58-0 lead in the fourth frame, after a 57 break which came to a halt with a missed green. But the Maltese player again exposed Hann's deficiencies to win the frame 58-6 and with that take a 4-0 lead at the end of the first session.

Showing more steadiness in his strokes, Hann reduced the deficit in the fifth frame when totalling 80 to Drago's single point.

After a nervous take-off in the next frame, the Maltese player showed steely nerves to keep his nose in front of his opponent who made a partial recovery from 49-18 down to 54-35 with two colours left and obviously needing a snooker.

That was too much for the Australian and Drago's superb final stroke on the bottom pocket had the pink sinking down to the delight of the packed audience.

White fends off Robertson challenge

White reached his third major semi-final of the season by fending off a brave fight back from Australian youngster Neil Robertson.

The resurgent 'Whirlwind', who reached the last four of the UK Championship and the Masters, was pulled back from 4-1 to 4-3 before getting the better of a nervy eighth frame to seal his progress.

With the score tied at 43-43, White crashed in a fantastic long red which set up a match-winning contribution of 28.

"It was looking like going 4-4 and I was having a few nightmares but I managed to knock in a brilliant red and I'm delighted to win," said White. "I was knackered after beating Stephen Hendry and I lost a bit of composure from 4-1 tonight through tiredness.

"Three semis this season is not bad for an old dog! I've been putting the work in and I'm playing very well. I'll have a nice rest now before tomorrow's match."

Robertson said: "I played a lot better than I did against Jimmy at the Masters (when he lost 6-2), though I probably took on a couple more long pots than I should have. Jimmy played very well and the red he potted in the last frame was superb.

Yesterday's results

Lee bt O'Sullivan 5-4 (31-65, 97-1, 23-60, 77-37, 24-62, 71-32, 35-75, 70-16, 69-44)

Maguire bt Higgins 5-3 (41-89, 0-83, 66-36, 63-0, 78-45, 63-18, 40-62, 73-1).

White bt Robertson 5-3 (1-100, 77-44, 141-0, 98-0, 68-55, 56-67, 18-57, 71-43).

Drago bt Hann 5-1 (70-63, 92-10, 63-40, 58-6,1-80, 60-35).

SFs today (best of 11): 3 p.m. - Lee vs Maguire; 8 p.m. White vs Drago.