Henry Coates picked up his maiden senior PDC ranking title on Tuesday, after defeating Damon Heta 8-4 in the final of Players Championship 25, as the Pro Tour darts double-header commenced at Halle 39, Hildesheim.
Henry – a Semi-Finalist at Players Championship 20 at the beginning of June – went a step further on Tuesday as he reached the final by recording a succession of victories against Filip Bereza, Karel Sedlacek, Mervyn King, Bradley Brooks, Christian Kist and Jeffrey De Graaf, to set up a clash with Heta.
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Nothing separated the pair in the opening eight legs of the tie, with each leg being won on throw and in no fewer than 15 darts, before Coates dominated the remainder of the final as the 20-year-old rattled off four successive legs in 17,15,18 and 15 darts respectively to seal an 8-4 victory to become just the fifth player without a Tour Card to win a PDC ranking title following in the footsteps of Joe Murnan (2015), Krzysztof Ratajski (2018), Scott Williams (2022) and Wesley Plaisier (2024).
Heta’s resurgent run to the final saw Australia’s Premier Player record victories on the day against Dennie Olde Kalter, Ted Evetts, Richard Veenstra, Krzysztof Ratajski, Kevin Doets and Niko Springer, before being denied by Coates.
Elsewhere, there were Quarter Final runs for Former World Youth Champion Max Hopp and England’s James Hurrell, whilst the likes of Top Seed Wessel Nijman and recent World Matchplay Semi-Finalist Dirk Van Duijvenbode were amongst the high profile first round casualties.
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The PDC Pro Tour double-header concludes on Wednesday with Players Championship 26 taking place in Hildesheim, with the 128 players returning to compete for a further £150,000 in prize money, with play beginning at 13:00 CET (12:00 BST). 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 Darts (25) 2026
Last 16
James Hurrell 6-4 Darryl Pilgrim
Niko Springer 6-3 Beau Greaves
Kevin Doets 6-1 Cristo Reyes
Damon Heta 6-4 Krzysztof Ratajski
Henry Coates 6-4 Bradley Brooks
Christian Kist 6-5 Jim Long
Jeffrey De Graaf 6-5 Brendan Dolan
Max Hopp 6-0 Sietse Lap
Quarter Finals
Niko Springer 6-0 James Hurrell
Damon Heta 6-2 Kevin Doets
Henry Coates 6-0 Christian Kist
Jeffrey De Graaf 6-1 Max Hopp
Semi Finals
Damon Heta 7-4 Niko Springer
Henry Coates 7-3 Jeffrey De Graaf
Final
Henry Coates 8-4 Damon Heta
Images: PDC / MSS
