Sport Five Germans in the Ally Pally
Darts World Cup drawn – Schindler is waiting for Fallon Sherrock at the start
As of: 6:28 p.m. | 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.
The field of the Darts World Cup has been drawn. An hour earlier, Florian Hempel, the fifth German, was able to secure a ticket for the Ally Pally for the first time. Gabriel Clemens had a difficult time. Martin Schindler is threatened with a gauntlet. However, there will be no big dream finale.
The final between Michael van Gerwen and Luke Humphries at the World Cup in London, which many darts fans had hoped for, had already become impossible before the draw. For the tournament from December 15th to January 3rd, the Dutchman and the Englishman are seeded in second and third place and would therefore meet in a possible semi-final.
On Sunday evening, the two professionals delivered a high-class final at the Players Championship Finals, which Humphries won 11:9 after falling behind and ultimately making unusual mistakes by his opponent. The Englishman is the man of the hour and has recently won three important major tournaments.
Man of the hour: Luke Humphries
Source: dpa/John Walton
At the start of the second round, Humphries will face the winner of the duel between Lee Evans and Sandro Eric Sosing. Van Gerwen will face the winner of the Keane Berry – Reynaldo Rivera match. The top 32 are seeded for the second round of the Darts World Cup.
also read
These also include two Germans, Gabriel Clemens and Martin Schindler. While last year’s semi-finalist Clemens is facing a very difficult start with the Dutch super talent Gian van Veen, a gauntlet could await the German number two in the sold-out Alexandra Palace. The Strausberger threatens to meet fan favorite Fallon Sherrock. Four years ago, the “Queen of the Palace” became the first woman to win a World Cup game against a man. However, the Englishwoman has to defeat the Dutchman Jermaine Wattimena in the first round.
also read
There are three Germans in the first round. Super League champion Dragutin Horvat meets the Belgian Mike De Decker in his second World Cup participation, while the Latvian Madars Razma, seeded number 32, awaits in round two. The second woman in the field of 96 participants, the Japanese Mikuru Suzuki, was drawn to Ricardo Pietreczko. Callan Rydz would be available in round two.
World Cup drama about Rupprecht
And Florian Hempel also jumped on the World Cup bandwagon. The Cologne native secured one of the last four World Cup tickets in the qualification that took place a few hours before the draw and can therefore also hope to receive his tour ticket. To do this, however, he needs at least one win at the World Cup. The opponent is the Irishman Dylan Slevin. A round later, Dimitri van den Bergh, the top player whom he sensationally defeated in his World Cup debut two years ago, awaits. With Clemens, Schindler, Pietreczko, Horvat and Hempel, five Germans were able to qualify for the highlight of the season for the first time in World Cup history.
Two more, Pascal Rupprecht and Daniel Klose, were almost added. The duo played their way to the final round of the World Cup qualification. Klose failed in his final 5:7 to Darren Webster. For Rupprecht, the final turns into a drama. When the score was 6:6, he had a throw in the decider against Boris Krcmar and got double 20 after 15 darts. The Croatian, however, showed East Westphalia the long nose and scored 124 points to win. Rusty-Jake Rodriguez from Austria secured the last ticket.
While the last-minute quartet around Hempel is happy to be there at all, for the two big favorites it’s about nothing other than the title. While Humphries is still missing from his collection of world titles, van Gerwen has already triumphed three times, most recently in 2019. Last year he lost in the final against Michael Smith, who is number one this year.
For the two seeded Germans, Clemens and Schindler, at least there won’t be any big challenges ahead if they overcome their opening hurdles. Clemens, seeded 22nd, would potentially face Englishmen Dave Chisnall and Nathan Aspinall on the way to the quarter-finals. The “German Giant” is in top form in good time, at the Players Championship Finals last weekend he only failed in the semi-finals against van Gerwen and took away 30,000 pounds in prize money.
also read
On the way to the round of the last eight, Schindler (position 26) would have to defeat the Dutchman Danny Noppert and the Australian Damon Heta, who has often played strongly this year. Both professionals could only meet the top five players in the quarterfinals at the earliest.
