Two moments of perfection bookended yesterday’s Players Championship event as the day saw two nine-dart legs hit by World Champion Luke Littler in his second-round victory against Adam Hunt and two-time World Champion Gary Anderson in his first-round victory against Ryan Joyce.
Joe Cullen was victorious overall, after a narrow 8-7 victory against Gian Van Veen in the decider, as the PDC Pro Tour double-header commenced at the Mattioli Arena, Leicester.
Gary Anderson hit the day’s first nine-darter, producing perfection in the penultimate leg of his opening round tie against Ryan Joyce.
Cullen, a beaten finalist in PC1 last month, went a step further on Tuesday, as he reached the final firstly by recording victories against Richard Veenstra, James Hurrell, Luke Humphries, Christian Kist, Kevin Doets and Mike De Decker, to set up a clash with Van Veen.
The final began with Cullen racing into a 2-0 lead, before Van Veen fort back by rattling off three successive legs in a total of 43 darts, before Cullen squared the tie up at 3piece in Leg Six with a 16 dart hold of throw. The tie then saw three straight holds of throw between the pair, ending with Van Veen breaking ‘The Rockstar’s’ throw in Leg 10 to move 6-4 ahead, before pinning a 17 dart hold of throw to move within one of victory. Cullen then created a phenomenal fightback despite surviving multiple match darts by The Dutchman, as he rattled off four successive legs and sealed the victory in a last leg decider with a 14 darter to pick up a first PDC title since September 2022 as well as the £15,000 top prize.
Van Veen’s run to a third Pro Tour final of his career saw the reigning World Youth Champion record victories on the day against Stefan Bellmont, Greg Ritchie, Adam Lipscombe, Dom Taylor, Michael Van Gerwen and Luke Littler, before being denied by Cullen.
Littler had looked likely to add another title to his recent hattrick. The World champion recorded a hat-trick of 6-5 victories against Niko Springer, Adam Hunt and Dirk van Duijvenbode, overturning 3-0 and 4-0 deficits against Springer and Van Duijvenbode, while landing a nine-dart finish in his win over Hunt and a brutal 6-1 demolition of Damon Heta, reeling off six straight legs in 12, 12, 11, 13, 13 and 11 darts to prevail with a staggering 122.93 average.
Elsewhere, there were Quarter Final runs for Australia’s premier player Damon Heta and Welshman Rob Owen, whilst the likes of multiple World Champions in Gerwyn Price, Rob Cross, Peter Wright and Raymond Van Barneveld were amongst the high profile first round casualties.
The PDC Pro Tour double-header concludes on Wednesday with Players Championship Six taking place in Leicester, with the 128 players returning to compete for a further £125,000 in prize money, with play beginning at 13:00 GMT. Play will be broadcasted across four streaming boards on PDC.TV and various bookmaker websites worldwide, with all live scores and results on tv.dartconnect.com.
Players Championship Five
Last 16
Gian Van Veen 6-3 Dom Taylor
Michael Van Gerwen 6-2 Lukas Wenig
Luke Littler 6-2 Scott Williams
Damon Heta 6-3 Martin Lukeman
Mike De Decker 6-3 Sebastian Bialecki
Rob Owen 6-5 Gary Anderson
Joe Cullen 6-2 Christian Kist
Kevin Doets 6-5 James Wade
Quarter Finals
Gian Van Veen 6-4 Michael Van Gerwen
Luke Littler 6-1 Damon Heta
Mike De Decker 6-2 Rob Owen
Joe Cullen 6-3 Kevin Doets
Semi Finals
Gian Van Veen 7-6 Luke Littler
Joe Cullen 7-5 Mike De Decker
Final
Joe Cullen 8-7 Gian Van Veen
——ENDS—–
Images: PDC
