Gabriel Clemens started the Darts World Cup on Thursday (December 21, 2023) with an easy win. Last year’s semi-finalist won his second round match against Man Lok Leung from Hong Kong 3-1, apart from the third set he showed a concentrated performance.
The next opponent in London’s “Ally Pally” after Christmas is Dave Chisnall from England, eleventh in the world rankings. Clemens (Saarwellingen/No. 22) started the match strongly, immediately got a break and a little later also won the first set 3-1. In the second round (3:2), the “German Giant” kept his nerve at the crucial moment before losing the third set 0:3. “I’m glad I won, my game was great,” he said afterwards, as reserved as usual.
Schindler, Hempel and Pietreczko still there
There was hardly any mood among the almost 3,000 spectators, also because Clemens’ success was never in danger – the fourth set went to the German 3-0, so the match was decided. Leung surprisingly prevailed against Vice Junior World Champion Gian van Veen (Netherlands) in round one, in which Clemens had a bye.
From a German perspective, Martin Schindler, Florian Hempel and Ricardo Pietreczko are still in action in the second round. Only Dragutin Horvat has been eliminated so far.
Littler thrilled against Gilding
Exceptional talent Luke Littler (England) once again caused a sensation on Thursday. The only 16-year-old junior world champion confidently defeated his compatriot Andrew Gilding, who was number 20, 3-1. It was only on Wednesday that the teenager won 3-0 against Christian Kist in the first World Cup game of his career.
However, the Dutchman Danny Noppert was eliminated. The number seven in the world rankings lost 3-0 to the Englishman Scott Williams and became the second top 10 player after Peter Wright to fail in his opening match. Williams narrowly missed a nine-darter – after eight perfect throws, the ninth missed its target by just millimeters.
Van Peer surprisingly defeats Woodhouse
The Englishman Luke Woodhouse, 33rd in the world rankings, was just not on the seeding list, but lost 2:3 to the Dutchman Berry van Peer, who was 104 places behind him, on Thursday afternoon. Mike De Decker, who defeated Germany’s Dargutin Horvat on Tuesday, lost his second round match against Madars Razma (Latvia/No. 32) 1:3 shortly afterwards.