Drago eliminated from Grand Prix

Tony Drago's stay at the 2005 Grand Prix, the opening ranking tournament of the season, was cut short yesterday when he lost his Last 64 match to Barry Hawkins 5-1.

Drago had reached the final stages of the tournament at Preston's Guild Hall after making his way through the qualifying round in Wales last month.

He beat Steve James 5-2 on that occasion but yesterday he failed to sparkle as Englishman Hawkins, currently ranked 18th in the world, made short work of the Maltese veteran professional.

Hawkins sailed through a comfortable winner as contributions of 63, 47, 88, 54 and in the decisive sixth frame, 123, set up a meeting with Jimmy Michie or Peter Ebdon on Tuesday.

Also yesterday, Shaun Murphy beat Mark Selby 5-2 to come through his first ranking event match as world champion unscathed.

Murphy, a 150-1 outsider when he triumphed at the Crucible in May, secured his place in the last 32 of the £400,000 event.

"I've played a bit competitively since the start of the season but not a great deal so I'm very pleased with how I performed out there," said Murphy.

Meanwhile, world no.38 Gerard Greene, Northern Ireland's highest-ranked player, needed only 89 minutes to cause the first upset of the tournament.

He whitewashed Stephen Lee 5-0.

Other results: O'Sullivan bt Haneveer 5-3; Cope bt Perry 5-3.