World Cup debutant Kai Gotthardt was eliminated in the second round of the darts spectacle at Ally Pally in London. The 29-year-old from Esslingen, nicknamed “The Tunnel”, missed a surprise against world number eight Stephen Bunting (England) in a 3-1 defeat.
Gotthardt, number 136 in the ranking, kept the duel with Bunting open for a long time, but did not take advantage of his chances in the second set. “I simply didn’t give myself enough time, it’s my own fault for this situation, it could have been different,” Gotthardt said disappointedly at “Sport1”: “I know what mistakes I made, he took advantage of them like a top eight player.”
The Swabian was one of six German darts players in the world championship field. In the first round he didn’t let a rare broken arrow bother him and won against the Scotsman Alan Soutar with 3:1 sets.
“The Tunnel” starts strong
Against veteran Bunting (39), BDO world champion from 2014 and semi-finalist at the PDC 2021, Gotthardt started with concentration and a better feel for the “180”. After a break to win the first set, Gotthardt missed three chances to move ahead 2-0. “The Bullet” Bunting, winner of the Masters this year, didn’t need to be asked twice and turned the game around. The last seven legs went to the Englishman.
German ranks are thinning
This means that the German ranks in London are thinning further: on Thursday, former semi-finalists Gabriel Clemens and Niko Springer lost their opening games. Florian Hempel hopes to follow Ricardo Pietreczko into the second round on Friday evening against Jeffrey de Zwaan (Netherlands). The German number one Martin Schindler only takes part in the tournament on Sunday.