Joe Cullen with 14 straight wins – Germans disappoint
The year of Joe Cullen: the Englishman won his third tournament
Quelle: Getty Images/Luke Walker
None of the five German dart professionals reached the third round of the Pro Tour on Sunday. Especially Max Hopp and Gabriel Clemens disappointed. Fallon Sherrock’s life partner caused a surprise against Michael van Gerwen. Joe Cullen remains the man of the hour.
En the day after Max Hopp reached the third round of the Players Championship 3, the German players on the Pro Tour had nothing to gain. Hopp, who caused a sensation on Saturday with a 6:5 win over world champion Peter Wright, lost 6:1 to Englishman Joe Murnan after a disappointing performance. The Hessian only got an average of 74.79.
In addition to Hopp, Martin Schindler (87.09) and Ricardo Pietreczko (89.31) also suffered first-round defeats. Schindler already led 4:1 against the American Jules van Dongen, but then gave up five legs in a row and was eliminated 4:6 after his opponent’s 112 finish. Tour debutant Pietreczko had no chance at 1: 6 against Ricky Evans from England.
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Florian Hempel was just able to avert another very early exit when he survived two match darts from Ted Evetts in the decider and defeated the Englishman 6:5. Then Mensur Suljovic meant last stop (4:6). With a daily average of 87 points, Hempel fell short of his potential.
Unstoppable Cullen, Wright experiences debacle
The same applied once again to Gabriel Clemens. Germany’s best darts professional has not yet gained momentum in 2022. After his first round defeat at the Masters and mostly weaker performances in the first three Players Championship tournaments, he was only able to win once again on Sunday. The Saarlander lost after a 6:4 against the Austrian Rowby-John Rodriguez with 1:6 against tour debutant Kevin Doets from the Netherlands and ended up like Hempel with only 87 points per shot on average.
Looking for his rhythm: Gabriel Clemens is not in shape yet
Others dominated the headlines: Cameron Menzies, for example, who prevailed at Q-School in January and has already had some good results. This time Fallon Sherrock’s Scottish partner made it to the round of 16 after beating Michael van Gerwen 6:4 before.
Man of the day, however, was once again Joe Cullen. The 32-year-old “rock star”, who won his first major at the Masters in January, also prevailed on Sunday after winning the tournament on Saturday and closed the weekend with an incredible 14-0 record.
His greatest moment: Joe Cullen won the Masters final against Dave Chisnall in January
Quelle: Credit: Taka Wu/PDC/Taka G Wu
Three tournament victories, which are all the more surprising given that this year Cullen is still regularly challenged in the Premier League during the week for the first time. In the final, the Englishman defeated Belgian Dimitri van den Bergh 8-1. World champion Peter Wright failed after a 0:6 against Ryan Joyce in the third round.
