Wright recaptures German Darts Masters title in Cologne

Peter Wright claimed his second German Masters title in the space of three years with an 8-6 victory over home favourite Gabriel Clemens in the final in Cologne on Saturday.

Wright, who won the inaugural staging of the World Series event in 2017, got his hands back on the trophy as he clinched the £20,000 winner’s cheque at the LANXESS arena.

The world number six defied the partisan home crowd on two occasions en route to glory, kicking off the final day by edging out giant-killer Nico Kurz 8-6, and after dispatching James Wade 8-4 in the Semi-Finals, ‘Snakebite’ denied Clemens a fairy-tale triumph.

“It’s nice to win a tournament myself this year!” said Wright.

“I thought I was going to win last week but I wasn’t quite good enough, Nathan Aspinall beat me and went on to win it.

“Today it was very difficult, I’ve played Gabriel a couple of times and he’s an amazing player, hats off to him. 

“German darts has gone through an incredible rise and it’s only going to keep growing, this tournament showed that.

“I know my game is not far away and I want to win a few more.”

The victory is Wright’s second of the season, following on from last month’s World Cup success alongside Gary Anderson and is his 23rd PDC singles title.

Clemens, appearing in his first televised final, made the stronger start, opening up a 2-0 lead before Wright got off the mark in style with a 116 checkout.

The German number three then powered in a show-piece 134 checkout which included two double tops, but crucial missed doubles thereafter allowed Wright to take the next two legs to restore parity.

The next two legs were shared before Wright took the lead for the first time courtesy of an 11-darter before adding tops to strengthen his grip on the contest.

A 13-darter saw Clemens stay in touch but one missed dart in the following leg allowed Wright to move to the brink at 7-5.

Clemens held throw in leg 13, but Wright held firm with a fifth 180 and double four to seal the deal.

Clemens, twice a beaten finalist on the ProTour this season, had followed up Friday’s scalp of Raymond van Barneveld with an 8-5 victory over Rob Cross in the Quarter-Finals, averaging 99 to the world number two’s 105.8 in a high quality battle.

The German Giant then dethroned defending champion Mensur Suljovic 8-3 to clinch his place in the final, affording the Austrian just five darts at doubles in the entire match.

A shock Quarter-Final scoreline saw Wade inflict a crushing 8-0 whitewash on an out of sorts Daryl Gurney – who averaged just 74.7 on a night to forget for the Northern Irishman.

Kurz, who knocked out Gary Anderson in Round One, saw his run brought to an end by eventual champion Wright despite coming from 7-3 down to trail just 7-6.

The next leg of the World Series sees the PDC stars head Down Under for the Brisbane Darts Masters from August 9-10.

Saturday July 13

Quarter-Finals

Peter Wright 8-6 Nico Kurz

Daryl Gurney 0-8 James Wade

Martin Schindler 2-8 Mensur Suljovic

Rob Cross 5-8 Gabriel Clemens

 

Semi-Finals

Peter Wright 8-4 James Wade

Mensur Suljovic 3-8 Gabriel Clemens

Final

Peter Wright 8-6 Gabriel Clemens