Malta’s Tony Drago failed in his bid to win the World Masters title in Las Vegas at the weekend, losing in the quarter-final against Ko Pin-Yi of China Taipei 8-4.

The latter also failed to make it to the finasl after losing in the semis to Mika Immonen of Finland 8-4. The winner was Alex Pagulayan, of the Philippines, who beat Immonen 8-6 in a close final.

Drago had reached the quarter-finals after beating his Mosconi Cup team-mate Niels Feijen of the Netherlands 8-7 in what was described as one of the most entertaining matches of the tournament.

Ko Pin-Yi, described as the 18 year-old wonderkid from Taiwan, fought back from 3-0 down to win eight out of nine racks to secure an excellent victory.

“Drago played very well but I really wanted to win and concentrated very hard,” said Ko after the game.

“All the players in this tournament are of the highest stan dard to you must play to your best to stay in the event. Hopefully I can play well tonight, but we will see what happens,” he added.

Drago, who was a winner of this event in 2003, flew into an early 3-0 lead as he raced around the table in his usual bustling style.

A 2/9 combo from Ko in the fourth game gave Ko his first rack and a miss by Drago in the next gave the Taiwanese the opportunity to run out and reduce the deficit to 3-2.

They shared the next two racks but Ko broke and ran the following two to go into the lead for the first time at 5-4. Drago then missed again for Ko to take a 6-4 lead.

In the 11th game, a two rail escape from Drago was far too slow and the cue ball nudged the 2 ball first to give Ko ball in hand. He completed a tricky run out to go to the hill at 7-4.

Ko made the 2 ball off the break and with a semi-final berth in his sights, he looked to be completing a difficult run out but he overshot the cue ball travelling from the 7 to 8 and was forced to play safe.

Drago looked to have the rack in the bag but he flashed at the 9 ball and it missed and fell perfectly for Ko, who rolled it home to take an 8-4 victory.