Hempel is the first German to go one further lap

Florian Hempel was the first German player to win his opening match at this year’s Darts World Cup in London. Hempel won 3-1 against Irishman Dylan Slevin on Sunday evening. Hempel will face Belgian Dimitri van den Bergh in the second round. Hempel surprisingly defeated him at the 2022 World Cup.

The 33-year-old Hempel had a difficult time, especially at the beginning of the game – the first set went to Slevin. The man from Cologne kept missing darts on double fields. A hit on double 18 ultimately ensured the hard-fought victory from a German perspective.

In order to still have a chance of defending his own Tour Card, Hempel had to win the game. Even the victory over Slevin might not be enough to slip into the top 64 in the ranking. Then we would need an additional win against van den Bergh in round two. If Hempel doesn’t make it into the top 64, he has to prove himself in the so-called Q-School in January and get the Tour Card back.

Published/Updated: Published/Updated: Recommendations: 1 Published/Updated:

Hempel was the first German representative to board the Ally Pally at the World Cup. On Tuesday evening (from 9 p.m. / Sport1 and DAZN), Dragutin Horvat (against Belgium’s Mike de Decker) and Ricardo Pietreczko (in a duel with the Japanese Mikuru Suzuki) will compete in their first round games. The two seeded professionals Gabriel Clemens and Martin Schindler will take part in the action on Thursday and Friday.