Tony Drago failed to progress to next week’s Welsh Open after losing to Joe Perry 4-2 in the third qualifying round in Sheffield yesterday.

The Maltese professional, who on Thursday beat Matthew Selt 4-2, started brightly as he surged into a two frame lead which included a break of 61 in the second frame.

But Perry came back strongly in the third frame after compiling a century break of 102 to bridge the gap to 2-1.

The Welshman suddenly clicked into gear and managed to win the next three frames with runs of 59, 40 and 42 to set up a first-round clash with Stephen Hendry, of Scotland, on Monday.

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.