Tony Drago is facing a battle to remain on the professional tour after being eliminated at the first hurdle in the 888.com World Championship on Monday evening.

As reported in yesterday’s issue, Drago lost narrowly 10-9 to Thailand’s Issara Kachaiwong on a day which also saw some other close scores.

Before this event, Drago was 69th in the provisional rankings.

The match between the two was one of the most exciting clashes on Monday with the 19 frames taking just 242 minutes.

Kachaiwong made sure of winning the decider thanks to a run of 53.