Sport Players Championship Finals
Gabriel Clemens makes a spectacular entry into the semi-finals
Status: 26.11.2023 | Reading time: 4 minutes
Cult caller Bray leaves the big stage
After the World Championships in January, darts is probably losing its most famous voice, Russ Bray. As “The Voice” announced on Thursday, the World Cup final will be his last. The 66-year-old will remain with the PDC in a different role.
It is only the third time that a German has reached the semi-finals of a major PDC tournament. Gabriel Clemens made history after a spectacular win at the Players Championship Finals. On Sunday evening he will meet Michael van Gerwen.
This final spurt was tough. After his opponent Luke Woodhouse had continued to catch up in the quarterfinals of the Players Championship Finals, Gabriel Clemens once again provided one last spectacular turnaround. The best German dart player initially checked 160 points to make it 9:7 and then finished the match with an 85 finish on the bullseye.
After reaching the semi-finals at the 2023 World Darts Championship and Max Hopp’s advance to the last four players at the 2018 European Darts Championship, this was the third time a German reached the semi-finals of a major tournament organized by the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) with a score of 10:7. In the semi-finals on Sunday evening (8 p.m. on DAZN), Clemens will face the Dutchman Michael van Gerwen, who is in the semi-finals of a major tournament for the 73rd time.
“It’s incredible. It wasn’t a good year for me, but now I’m in the semi-finals,” said Clemens happily, just three weeks before the World Championships: “It was close the whole time, but my high finishes and the 85 over the bull came at the right time.”
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Against Woodhouse, Clemens gained a small lead early on. Although he quickly made his throw, he broke Woodhouse for the second time before the first break when he checked 134 points to make it 3-2. A lead he held until the next break. After an 11-darter he went into the second break 6:4.
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Highfinsih, 11-darter – Whenever it was called for, Clemens achieved outstanding results. Which was necessary as the match remained close. In the eleventh leg the “German Giant” secured the next break, but Woodhouse held on with the re-break to make it 5:7. The Englishman missed five checkout opportunities in the next leg and his double rate fell to 25 percent. Clemens (47 percent) punished the weakness with the third break in a row. Woodhouse underlined that the 8:5 did not mean a preliminary decision under these circumstances with the fourth loss of serve in a row to make it 6:8.
After “Woody” was able to get his serve through to make it 7:8, the German’s lead dwindled. But then Clemens unpacked the 160 and crossed the finish line with an average of 98.75 points per shot and a 43 percent hit rate on the double fields. So now van Gerwen, against whom he has never been able to win on a big stage. “Everything happens for the first time at some point. Maybe it will happen tonight,” said Clemens, who has shown consistently strong performances since the World Cup dress rehearsal began on Friday.
Van Gerwen at a high level
After his 6:3 opening win against the Englishman Connor Scutt, he also defeated the Northern Irish shooting star Josh Rock with the same result. On Saturday evening, in his third game on the side stage, he made short work of Niels Zonneveld and moved into the quarter-finals with a 10-1 win. “I hadn’t won a single match at a major tournament this year,” said Clemens after his success, recalling the importance of the successes in Minehead.
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For the three other Germans who started, the tournament ended early. Martin Schindler lost a 5:3 lead against the Belgian Kim Huybrechts and missed four match darts, while Daniel Klose lost to Ryan Joyce from England 3:6. Ricardo Pietreczko at least made it into the second round on Saturday after beating Christian Kist (Netherlands) 6-1, but lost to Englishman Ryan Searle.
Otherwise there were numerous surprises at the finals. World champion Smith was also eliminated in the first round. The world number one lost to the Dutchman Richard Veenstra.
Early exit: Michael Smith surprisingly lost to the Dutchman Richard Veenstra
Quelle: PDC/Kieran Cleeves
Luke Humphries and Michael van Gerwen emerged as the big favorites early on: “Luke Humphries is not the best player in the world. He hasn’t beaten me yet,” said van Gerwen, who had a lot of trouble in the quarter-finals. He was already 6:9 behind against Stephen Bunting, but made a final push and checked 125 points in the decider to win. An average of 107.07 points and a double rate of 71 percent suggest what awaits the German number one in the evening.
Results Players Championship Finals
Round of 16
Kim Huybrechts (BEL) – Stephen Bunting (ENG) 8:10
Damon Heta (AUS) – Brendan Dolan (NIR) 10:8
Michael van Gerwen (NED) – Mario Vandenbogaerde (BEL) 10:6
Dave Chisnall (ENG) – Luke Woodhouse (ENG) 8:10
Luke Humphries (ENG) – Ryan Searle (ENG) 10:7
Gabriel Clemens (D) – Niels Zonneveld (NED) 10:1
Dimitri van den Bergh (BEL) – James Wade (ENG) 6:10
Jermaine Wattimena (NED) – Ryan Joyce (ENG) 7:10
Quarterfinals
Michael van Gerwen (NED) – Stephen Bunting (ENG) 10:9
Gabriel Clemens (D) – Luke Woodhouse (ENG) 10:7
James Wade (ENG) – Luke Humphries (ENG) 7:10
Damon Heta (AUS) – Ryan Joyce (ENG) 6:10
Semifinals
Michael van Gerwen (NED) – Gabriel Clemens (D)
Luke Humphries (ENG) – Ryan Joyce (ENG)
