World ranking: 26
Last five seasons: 20-10-11-15-14
Date of birth: 22-09-65
Lives: Valletta
Turned professional: 1985
Ranking tournament victories: 0
Last season’s prize money: £34,125
Career prize money: £804,533
Highest tournament break: 144

Tony ‘Tornado’ Drago is one of the most exciting exponents of the game - and undoubtedly the quickest.

The Maltese maestro compiled a century break in just 210 seconds during the 1995 UK Championship.

He holds the record for the fastest frame - just three minutes - which he set at the 1988 International in Stoke against Danny Fowler.

He made his world championship debut in 1986 and his first appearance at the Crucible came two years later, when he defeated Alex Higgins and Dennis Taylor on his way through to the quarter-finals.

Steve Davis was his opponent but, over the best-of-25-frames, he could win only four.

Drago, beaten 10-6 by Jimmy White in the final of the Mita World Masters at Birmingham’s NEC, reached the final of a world ranking tournament for the first time at the 1997 International Open in Aberdeen.

Having previously failed nine times to get beyond the quarter-final stage, he held his nerve to beat John Parrott 5-3 in the last eight.

He then upset world No 2 John Higgins 6-5 in the semis.

The exertions of that match took their toll in the final, which Stephen Hendry won 9-1.

Performances like that helped Malta’s leading sportsman climb as high as No 10 in the Embassy World Rankings but he has slipped to 26th after two disappointing seasons.