Malta’s Tony Drago will be meeting Tom Ford this evening in the last Round 1 match at the Hilton conference Centre.

Ford yesterday defeated another Maltese player, Joe Grech,

5-1 to set up today’s match against Drago for which there will be a sell out crowd.

The other Maltese players also suffered elimination. Alex Borg was close to forcing a deciding frame against Adrian Gunell but eventually was unlucky on the brown when leasding 55-39 as he went in off. Gunnell cleared the table to clinch a 5-3 win and now meets Graeme Dott in the second round.

Duncan Bezzina lost 5-1 to Neil Robertson whose best break was a solid 120. Simon Zammit had earlier lost 5-0 to Mike Dunn who compiled a best break of 54. In Grech’s encounter, Ford’s best break was an excellent 136.

Frame scores

Grech-Ford (Grech first): 13-115, 0-136, 75-68, 39-103, 37-75, 0-139.

Bezzina-Robertson (Bezzina first): 16-120, 63-55, 8-94, 48-61, 67-70, 54-63.

Zammit-Dunn (Zammit first): 34-73, 25-89, 60-70, 43-88, 20-96.

Today’s programme

4pm: S. Maguire-J. Swail; D. Gray-M. Dunn; S. Hendry-B. Hawkins; 8pm: T. Drago-T. Ford; M. Williams-N. Robertson; J. Higgins-D. Henry.

Other results: A. McManus-B. Pinches 5-4; M. Stevens-S. Murphy 5-4; K. Doherty-R. Day 5-2; P. Ebdon -M. Holt 5-1.