Malta’s Tony Drago will be meeting Ryan Day today in the Last 32 of the Shanghai Masters Open in Shanghai, China.

Yesterday, in his opening match against local boy A. Bulajiong – one of the Wild Card entries – in what is referred to as the Wild Card round, Drago won handsomely 5-2.

Playing brilliantly at times and recklessly on other occasions, the new-look Drago (hair almost completely shaved) was the master of the table and often received all-round applause from the Chinese crowd present in the hall.

He came from 0-1 behind in the first frame to take a 2-1 lead before he missed an easy black in the fourth frame, allowing his Chinese opponent to win the frame and level the game at 2-2 at the interval.

Tony’s best came after the break, especially in the sixth frame. After winning the fifth frame to go 3-2 ahead, Drago appeared to have lost the frame when at 64-0 down, he missed a long pot on a red. But Bulajiong, after potting a red, missed a very easy blue – he just needed to pot it to have Drago needing snookers. The Valletta-born ace, however, replied with a break of 23, defended, and then being 42 in arrears, hit back with a brilliant clearance of 43 to snatch the frame from his opponent and take a 4-2 lead.

In the final frame, Drago never gave his opponent a chance and went on to clinch his berth in the Last 32.

In other matches, there were three surprise casualties as Scott Mackenzie, Michael Judge and Mike Dunn were all bundled out by Chinese Wild Card entries on Day One.

Mackenzie was beaten 5-4 by Yang Quitian, while Judge lost 5-2 against Xiao Guodong and Dunn was beaten 5-3 by Yu Delu.

But Stuart Pettman, Fergal O’Brien, Adrian Gunnell and Dominic Dale all posted comfortable wins to advance to the Last 32 round.