New tour plans will see ranking events double

World Snooker revealed major expansion plans yesterday which will see the number of ranking events more than double.

More overseas tournaments will be played on the new World Snooker Tour, which is set to be introduced next season.

The move will be popular among players concerned by a dwindling number of major events - there are only six on the calendar this year - and has been introduced to capitalise on growing interest in countries where snooker has previously had a low profile.

World champion John Higgins has been an advocate of taking top-class snooker to previously overlooked countries, and has promoted a World Series of Snooker which has seen matches played in Germany, Poland, Russia, Portugal and the Czech Republic.

World Snooker intend to have at least 15 ranking events on the calendar, plus invitational tournaments, in a venture which is being carried out in conjunction with events management company IMG.

World Snooker chairman Sir Rodney Walker said: "We have brought forward today's announcement of the proposed World Snooker Tour in response to inaccurate comments about the sport which have been made in the past few months.

"In the last five years, the sport has progressed from an uncertain financial position to a sport with financial stability.

"Together with IMG we believe the time is now right to build on these underlying strengths to put in place a World Snooker Tour."

Drago through

Tony Drago improved his chances of playing in the final stages of the UK Championship when he booked his place in the second qualifying round after beating England's David Gilbert 9-5 in Prestatyn, yesterday.

Leading 5-3 after the opening session, Drago won four of the six frames in the afternoon session to seal his place in the in the second qualifying round. His next opponent tomorrow will be another English player, Mark Davis.