YORK (England), Dec 11: Another stirring fight-back from Malta’s Tony Drago was eventually ended by Peter Ebdon as the Englishman won 9-7 to reach the quarterfinals of the UK Championship Monday night.

Drago had beaten Fergal O’Brien from 8-5 down in the previous round and a much bigger shock looked a serious possibility as he stormed back from 8-4 to 8-7 with flashes of electrifying snooker.

But Ebdon, one of the game’s most fierce competitors, kept his head together in the 16th frame and made a telling break of 56 after a poor safety from Drago. A few shots later the man from Valletta, needing snookers, went in-off and conceded the match.

Trailing 6-2 Drago had won the first two frames of the session with breaks of 50 and 64 but Ebdon cleared from the brown to win the next after getting the two snookers he required. The match seemed as good as over when the world no 7 went 8-4 up.

But Drago found a burst of inspiration after the interval, winning the next on the colours and adding a scrappy 14th frame after Ebdon had missed routine pots on a green and a red.

The Barbican Centre crowd were falling off the edge of their seats as Drago, ranked 29, blasted in a 125 to make it 8-7.

A relieved Ebdon, who will now play Ronnie O’Sullivan, held his nerve to win the next and paid tribute to his opponent’s style of play: “All credit to Tony because he’s a great entertainer and he plays like that even when there’s a lot at stake.

“The crowd love him and he deserves a lot of respect because he’s a real ambassador for the game. In fact he probably deserved to win because he played superbly and I didn’t play well at all.

“I still fancied winning, and I would have done if it had gone 8-8. All of the top players are getting through and you expect that in this tournament with the longer matches.”

Dublin’s Ken Doherty looks likely to become the sixth successive top-eight player through to the quarterfinals Tuesday as he established a 6-2 lead over Welshman Dominic Dale.

An 81 gave Dale the first frame but he was starved of chances in the next five as a determined Doherty surged ahead with breaks of 107, 33, 51, 49 and 79.

There was some consolation for Dale in the seventh frame as he complied an excellent 140 total clearance to put himself in line for the 10,000 pounds sterlings high break prize.

He had chances to cut his overnight arrears to two frames in the last of the session but missed a long pot on the final red and Doherty cleared to the pink with 26.