Tony Drago was among the 64 players to qualify for the final stages of the new Indian Open but the other Maltese player in the qualifying round, Alex Borg, failed to make the TV stages of the tournament.

The first ever ranking event in India will take place in Delhi in October with Drago coming through the qualifying rounds after beating Alfie Burden 4-3 in a balanced match at the Doncaster Dome earlier this week.

Drago battled his way to a 3-2 lead with a break of 80 but Burden forced a decider in the best-of-seven contest after replying with a run of 73 in the sixth frame.

The Maltese Tornado made sure of his place in the next round though after winning the decisive game 59-17.

Borg pulled one back after going 0-2 down but Walden reserved his best for the second session, compiling a break of 65 on his way to a 4-1 win.

Two other veterans of the game, Steve Davis and Jimmy White, both suffered 4-1 defeats, to Tha-nawat Tirapongpaiboon and Gary Wilson respectively.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.