Australia claimed their maiden Cazoo World Cup of Darts title on a historic night in Frankfurt, as Damon Heta and Simon Whitlock defeated Welsh duo Gerwyn Price and Jonny Clayton 3-1 in Sunday\u2019s final. <\/p>\n
Ten years on from suffering World Cup heartbreak in an extraordinary 2012 finale against England, Whitlock fulfilled his darting destiny alongside Australian number one Heta to scoop the \u00a370,000 top prize at the Eissporthalle.<\/p>\n
Australia had already dumped out five-time semi-finalists Belgium and top seeds England on Finals Day, and they became the fifth nation to lift the coveted title with a convincing win over the 2020 World Cup winners.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is life-changing. I have dreamt about this moment my entire life and I\u2019ve finally got there,\u201d said an emotional Whitlock, one of four World Cup ever-presents.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt feels amazing. I had a great partner. Damon has been amazing. He\u2019s a great friend, and he\u2019s the best player on the planet right now. He is going to be the next world champion.\u201d<\/p>\n
Heta gave Australia the early impetus in the final with a stunning whitewash win over a below-par Price, before Whitlock put the fifth seeds on the brink of history after battling past Clayton 4-2.<\/p>\n
Whitlock struck the decisive blow with a sublime 120 finish to break throw in leg five, and despite missing six match darts at tops, the 53-year-old eventually closed it out at the seventh attempt to double their lead.<\/p>\n
The 2012 runners-up had the momentum and continued their charge by opening up a two-leg buffer in the Doubles contest, but Price and Clayton produced a stirring fightback to prolong the drama.<\/p>\n
The Welsh pair responded with legs of 15, 14 and 13 darts to force a final leg, only for Whitlock to miss a dart at double 18 for the title, and Clayton capitalised via double eight to clinch the Pairs match and reduce the arrears to 2-1.<\/p>\n
Clayton then had the opportunity to set up a grandstand finale between Whitlock and Price, but Heta had other ideas, producing a nerveless display in the biggest game of his life.<\/p>\n
The 34-year-old averaged 99 and crashed in two 180s to fend off the former Premier League champion, pinning his favourite double 16 to spark jubilant celebrations from the Australian duo.<\/p>\n
\u201cSimon dragged me through the beginning,\u201d admitted Heta, who defeated three of the world\u2019s top eight on Sunday evening.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m stoked for Simon and stoked for Australia with all the support we\u2019ve had back home. <\/p>\n
\u201cEverything we are sacrificing being here and we\u2019ve got the title in the bag. It\u2019s an amazing feeling.\u201d<\/p>\n
Australia began Sunday\u2019s action with a 2-1 victory over fourth seeds Belgium, producing a sensational Pairs performance to whitewash Dimitri Van den Bergh and Kim Huybrechts.<\/p>\n
After Heta was beaten by his Belgian housemate Van den Bergh in the opening rubber, Whitlock preserved their hopes with a 4-3 win over Huybrechts, averaging 101 in the process.<\/p>\n
The Aussies then underlined their credentials in the Doubles decider, averaging 109 and rattling in legs of 11 and 12 darts midway through the contest to progress.<\/p>\n
In the semi-finals, Heta recovered from 3-1 adrift to stun England\u2019s Michael Smith, after the St Helen\u2019s star burst 72 for a 4-1 success, while a rampant Whitlock whitewashed James Wade with a 103 average to complete the job.<\/p>\n
Price and Clayton fell short in their pursuit of a second World Cup triumph, despite denying hosts Germany and four-time winners Netherlands to seal their spot in Sunday\u2019s showpiece.<\/p>\n
Price set the tone for the 2020 World Champions earlier in the day, posting the second highest individual average in World Cup history during his four-leg blitz of Martin Schindler.<\/p>\n
The 37-year-old averaged 117.88, landed a ten-dart leg and converted a stunning 170 checkout to whitewash Schindler, before Clayton eased past German number one Gabriel Clemens 4-2 to seal the deal.<\/p>\n
The second seeds then dispatched Dutch duo Danny Noppert and Dirk van Duijvenbode in the semi-finals, with Price closing out a 4-1 win over UK Open champion Noppert in the opening tie.<\/p>\n
Clayton later came out on top in a high-quality affair against Van Duijvenbode, defying four 180s and legs of 11 and 12 darts from the Dutchman to complete successive Singles victories.<\/p>\n
The Premier League duo were bidding to become the first side in World Cup history to recover from 2-0 down in the final to scoop the title, but they were unable to create another slice of history at the Eissporthalle.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe weren\u2019t at our best in the final but Simon and Damon played fantastic,\u201d said Price, featuring in his second final in three years.<\/p>\n
\u201cI said at the beginning of the tournament we\u2019d play Australia in the final, but I predicted that we would win, so I was wrong there!<\/p>\n
\u201cWe didn\u2019t fire tonight, but we\u2019ll be back and we will be stronger next year.\u201d<\/p>\n
Elsewhere, England\u2019s Smith and Wade suffered semi-final heartbreak, despite dispatching reigning champions Scotland in the quarter-finals, relinquishing just one leg in dumping out Peter Wright and John Henderson.<\/p>\n
Netherlands\u2019 new-look pairing of Noppert and Van Duijvenbode recorded successive Singles wins over Northern Ireland\u2019s Daryl Gurney and Brendan Dolan to reach their first World Cup semi-final since 2019, only for Wales to curtail their title tilt.<\/p>\n
Sunday June 19 Wales 2-0 Germany Belgium 1-2 Australia England 2-0 Scotland Evening Session England 0-2 Australia Final<\/strong> Australia claimed their maiden Cazoo World Cup of Darts title on a historic night in Frankfurt, as Damon Heta and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":4734,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[943,124],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4733","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-results"],"lang":"en","translations":{"en":4733,"de":4736},"pll_sync_post":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pdc2.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4733"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pdc2.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pdc2.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pdc2.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pdc2.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4733"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pdc2.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4733\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4735,"href":"https:\/\/pdc2.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4733\/revisions\/4735"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pdc2.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pdc2.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pdc2.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pdc2.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nAfternoon Session
\nQuarter-Finals<\/strong>
\nNetherlands 2-0 Northern Ireland
\nSingles One: Danny Noppert 4-2 Daryl Gurney
\nSingles Two: Dirk van Duijvenbode 4-3 Brendan Dolan
\nDoubles (Not required): Netherlands v Northern Ireland<\/p>\n
\nSingles One: Gerwyn Price 4-0 Martin Schindler
\nSingles Two: Jonny Clayton 4-2 Gabriel Clemens
\nDoubles (Not required): Wales v Germany<\/p>\n
\nSingles One: Dimitri Van den Bergh 4-2 Damon Heta
\nSingles Two: Kim Huybrechts 3-4 Simon Whitlock
\nDoubles: Belgium 0-4 Australia<\/p>\n
\nSingles One: Michael Smith 4-0 John Henderson
\nSingles Two: James Wade 4-1 Peter Wright
\nDoubles (Not required): England v Scotland<\/p>\n
\nSemi-Finals<\/strong>
\nWales 2-0 Netherlands
\nSingle One: Gerwyn Price 4-1 Danny Noppert
\nSingles Two: Jonny Clayton 4-2 Dirk van Duijvenbode
\nDoubles (Not required): Wales v Netherlands<\/p>\n
\nSingles One: Michael Smith 3-4 Damon Heta
\nSingles Two: James Wade 0-4 Simon Whitlock
\nDoubles (Not required): England v Australia<\/p>\n
\nAustralia 3-1 Wales
\nSingles One: Damon Heta 4-0 Gerwyn Price
\nSingles Two: Simon Whitlock 4-2 Jonny Clayton
\nDoubles: Australia 3-4 Wales
\nSingles Four: Damon Heta 4-2 Jonny Clayton
\nSingles Five (Not required): Simon Whitlock v Gerwyn Price<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"