Opening victory at the Darts World Cup
Gabriel Clemens celebrates successful return to the World Cup
December 21, 2023, 11:23 p.m
Last year’s semi-finalist made a successful return to the place of his greatest success: Gabriel Clemens is in round three of the Darts World Cup. Three more Germans want to follow suit before Christmas.
Gabriel Clemens has fulfilled his mandatory task at the start of the Darts World Cup and can compete again in Alexandra Palace in London after Christmas. Last year’s semi-finalist won 3-1 against the well-rounded outsider Man Lok Leung from Hong Kong and is now in the third round.
For the German Giant it was the return to the competition venue where he had defeated the then leader Gerwyn Price from Wales almost twelve months ago and thus secured the greatest success of his career. “Last year is last year, now a new tournament is underway,” said Clemens dryly before the game. “There are a lot of Germans here again, the atmosphere is fantastic, it was great fun,” said Clemens less dryly on Dazn after the game.
In front of just over 3,000 fans – many of them from Germany – the favorite showed an overall performance that could be improved. With a finish of 140 points, Clemens won the first set. The game remained competitive, but Clemens showed better nerves in set four and prevailed.
Three Germans can follow Clemens
The 40-year-old from Saarland is the first German professional in the third round of this World Cup. After the Christmas holidays, we will play against English co-favorite Dave Chisnall, who also clearly won his opening match. “Chisnall, like me, didn’t have a great year, especially in the major tournaments. So, let’s see,” commented Clemens, who is spending the Christmas holidays in his home country of Saarland before continuing in the “Ally Pally”.
On Friday (8 p.m./Sport1 and DAZN) Florian Hempel and Martin Schindler have the chance to also move into the third round. Hempel meets the world number 15. Dimitri van den Bergh. Schindler is favorite against the Dutchman Jermaine Wattimena and would then meet Scott Williams, who had surprisingly won 3-0 against the Dutch top player Danny Noppert immediately before Clemens. On Saturday, debutant Ricardo Pietreczko, the fourth remaining German, will face the Englishman Callan Rydz.