Malta’s Tony Drago and Alex Borg have been drawn in very tough groups for the forthcoming Malta Cup tournament at the Portomaso Hilton next month.

Alex Borg is drawn in Group A together with John Higgins, Ali Carter, Ryan Day and a wild card who is still to be named by the World Snooker Association.

Tony Drago is in Group 3 alongside Shaun Murphy, Stephen Hendry, Stephen Maguire and Mark Selby.

The other groups are as follows:

Group 2: Ken Doherty, Neil Robertson, Joe Swail, Stephen Lee and a wild card still be to named by the World Snooker Association.

Group 4: Graeme Dott, Peter Ebdon, Mark Williams, Ding Junhui and Dominic Dale.

It is to be remembered that this year’s event is a non-ranking tournament, but it is being played on a round-robin basis where every player will have to play all his opponents in the group, thus making sure that each player at least plays four qualifying matches.

The tournament is being held between 4 and 10 February.

Before this event, Drago will be involved in the qualifying round for this year’s China Open where he is expected to meet Jamie Robertson in a first round qualifier.