Price Doubles Up On The World Series With Victory Down Under

Price Doubles Up On The World Series With Victory Down Under

Alex Moss |

A WEEK IN DARTS – AUGUST 12, 2024 – BRILLIANT PRICE STUNS LITTLER TO WIN THE AUSTRALIAN DARTS MASTERS

The world’s top players made the trip Down Under last week for the latest stop on the World Series of Darts calendar. Here’s our round-up of the Australian Darts Masters and all the other darting action over the last seven days…

@dartscorner.co.uk 🎯🇦🇺🌏 𝗣𝗿𝗶𝗰𝗲 𝗗𝗼𝘂𝗯𝗹𝗲𝘀 𝗨𝗽 𝗢𝗻 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗪𝗼𝗿𝗹𝗱 𝗦𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗪𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗩𝗶𝗰𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆 𝗗𝗼𝘄𝗻 𝗨𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿 - The @weekly.dartscast ♬ original sound - Darts Corner

PRICE REIGNS SUPREME IN WOLLONGONG

Gerwyn Price claimed his second World Series of Darts title of 2024 with a stunning 8-1 victory against Luke Littler in the Australian Darts Masters final.

The Welshman, who won the Nordic Darts Masters in June, produced a classy display in Wollongong to pocket the £20,000 top prize and deny Littler an eighth title in as many months.

‘The Iceman’ raced into a 4-0 lead and was averaging 112, before winning four of the next five legs to cap off a memorable weekend Down Under.

“Luke is playing fantastic darts at the moment, and that probably kicked me into gear,” said Price, who averaged 99.42 and was 53 percent on the doubles in the final.

“I know I need to play well against every player, but especially against this young talent, so I was right up for this game.

“I haven’t been playing well over the last couple of months, but I really wanted to win this one.

“We can all hit 9, 10, 11, 12-darters, but the game is all about confidence, and this will give me the big confidence boost that I needed.”

After brushing aside Australian qualifier Brenton Lloyd 6-2 in the first round on Friday, Price defeated Australia’s number one Damon Heta (6-4) and Peter Wright (7-6) to advance to his third World Series final in as many months.

The top seed Littler had shown excellent form on his way to the final, posting 104 averages in wins over Michael Smith and Dimitri Van den Bergh.

But the 17-year-old fell short in the decider against Price, hitting just one of his 12 attempts at doubles.

“Fair play to Gezzy. I couldn’t keep up with him there,” Littler admitted.

“He didn’t miss much (in the final), and he deserved to win.

“There’s no excuses. I was poor in that final, but hopefully I can carry my form from my first two games into New Zealand.”

The World Series continues with the New Zealand Darts Masters in Hamilton on Friday.

GREAVES EXTENDS RECORD HAUL ON THE WOMEN’S SERIES

Beau Greaves extended her record of Women’s Series titles to 25 after picking up a pair of victories in Niedernhausen at the weekend.

The recently crowned two-time Women’s World Matchplay champion enjoyed another successful weekend on the PDC’s women’s circuit, winning 20 out of 22 matches across the two days of action in Germany.

The 20-year-old averaged 95.74 to defeat Noa-Lynn van Leuven in the Event 13 final on Saturday, losing just four legs in six matches to clinch her fourth Women’s Series title of the season.

Later that day, Aileen de Graaf joined the roll of honour after beating Anca Zijlstra 5-2 in the final of Event 14 to secure her first Women’s Series title.

Sunday’s double header saw van Leuven and Greaves contest both finals and share the two titles on offer.

In Event 15, van Leuven defied a stirring fightback from Greaves to win 5-4, having led 4-0 before being taken to a last-leg decider where the Dutch ace produced a 13-dart hold of throw to claim her third Women’s Series title of the year.

Greaves avenged that defeat by beating van Leuven 5-3 in the Event 16 final, a result which extends her lead at the top of the Women’s Series Order of Merit to £6,400.

The Women’s Series resumes with Events 17-20 in Wigan on September 7-8.

ILAGAN MOVES INTO WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP SPOTS

Lourence Ilagan has moved into a provisional spot for the PDC World Darts Championship after reaching a trio of finals on the PDC Asian Tour at the weekend.

‘The Gunner’ lost 5-1 to Hong Kong’s Man Lok Leung in the Event 16 final, before seeing off the Order of Merit leader Alexis Toylo by the same scoreline in the Event 17 decider.

Ilagan was beaten 5-4 by Paolo Nebrida in the final of Event 18, with his hat-trick of final appearances in Singapore helping him climb up to third on the Order of Merit.

Three players from the Philippines occupy the top three spots in the rankings, with Toylo ($16,300), Nebrida ($13,100) and Ilagan ($9,700) ahead of Japan’s Ryusei Azemoto ($9,550).

The top four players at the end of the season will qualify for the Alexandra Palace showpiece in December, with just six events left to go that are all set to be held on a bumper weekend in China in October.

Pictures: Sylvia Liber/PDC

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