Dragutin Horvat and Darius Labanauskas were victorious on Friday, in winning Challenge Tour Events Six & Seven respectively, as the PDC’s 2nd tier tour weekend commenced at Halle 39, Hildesheim.
Horvat, the winner of one previous Challenge Tour title, reached the final of Event Six firstly by recording victories against Chas Barstow, John Davey, James Vanbesien, Jimmy Van Schie, Ryan O’Connor, Michel Unterbuchner and Graham Usher, to set up a clash with Ted Evetts.
The final began with Evetts taking the opener in 16 darts, before Horvat hit back-to-back 15 darters to take a 2-1 lead in a race to five. Evetts then levelled the tie up in the following leg in 18 darts, before winning back-to-back legs in 14 and 15 darts respectively to go 4-2 ahead and within one of victory.
Horvat then produced a phenomenal comeback by rattling off three successive legs in 13,16 and 15 darts respectively to win the tie in a last leg decider and claim the £2,500 top prize.
In Event Seven, Darius Labanauskas reached the final firstly by recording victories against Marc Vleghert, Daniel Klose, Robert Nelson, Bailey White, Trevor Burkhill, Rowby-John Rodriguez and David Pallett, to set up a clash with Keegan Brown.
The final began with back-to-back holds of throw between the pair, before Labanauskas rattled off three successive legs in 19,20 and 14 darts respectively to go 4-1 ahead and within one of victory.
Brown did pull one leg back in 22 darts, before the Lithuanian sealed the victory in Leg Seven with a 17 darter to claim the £2,500 top prize and a second Challenge Tour title of the season.
The PDC Winmau Challenge Tour weekend concludes on Saturday, with Events Eight & Nine taking place in Hildesheim, with play commencing at 10:00 CET, as all live scores and results can be viewed at tv.dartconnect.com.
PDC Winmau Challenge Tour
Event Six
Quarter Finals
Graham Usher 5-3 Tom Sykes
Dragutin Horvat 5-1 Michel Unterbuchner
Ted Evetts 5-2 Ron Meulenkamp
Trevor Burkhill 5-3 Nicolas Thuillier
Semi Finals
Dragutin Horvat 5-3 Graham Usher
Ted Evetts 5-0 Trevor Burkhill
Final
Dragutin Horvat 5-4 Ted Evetts
Event Seven
Quarter Finals
Adam Mould 5-3 David Sharp
Keegan Brown 5-3 Kevin Burness
Darius Labanauskas 5-2 Rowby-John Rodriguez
David Pallett 5-0 Arno Merk
Semi Finals
Keegan Brown 5-4 Adam Mould
Darius Labanauskas 5-0 David Pallett
Final
Darius Labanauskas 5-2 Keegan Brown
——Ends—–
Images: PDC
