Malta's Tony Drago brought a capacity crowd to its feet at the Hilton Conference Centre in Portomaso by reaching the quarter-finals of the European Open with a 5-2 victory over Paul Hunter last night.
Drago has struggled in his home event in recent years but he took advantage of Hunter's numerous errors to reach his first ranking tournament quarter-final since featuring in the last eight of the 1998 Irish Open.
"It's about time I gave the crowd something to be happy about," said a jubilant Drago after being cheered from the arena. "For the last few years I've really felt the pressure here but these days I can accept that it's part of the job.
"This is a great place to play and I'd have problems if I couldn't get up for it." Drago won a tight opening frame and added the second after Hunter, the British Masters champion, had gone in-off the pink. Hunter's 82 helped him reduce his arrears to 2-1 but the world number eight went seriously off the boil as the match continued, eventually missing an easy red to let Drago in to seal the match in the seventh frame.
Drago spent five years as part of the top 16 in the 1990s but has struggled for the last few seasons. He has become more consistent of late, though, and began the event 18th in the provisional rankings, a position he is keen to improve on.
"I'm not playing as well as I know I can but I keep winning and if I can win the title playing like this I'll be very happy," Drago said. "If you had offered me a quarter-final place with all the ranking points that come with it a couple of years ago I would have taken it but now I'm there I want more."