Max Hopp wins Players Championship 19 as two-nine darters are hit

By Sporting Life

19:48 · SAT September 29, 2018

Max Hopp picked up his second PDC ranking title with a 6-3 win over Madars Razma in the final of Players Championship 19, on a day which saw two nine-dart finishes hit in Dublin.

The German youngster backed up his German Darts Open victory with an assured display in the final at the Citywest Hotel, while Michael van Gerwen and George Killington landed perfect legs earlier in the day.

Hopp produced a series of strong performances, defeating Alan Norris, Davy van Baelen, Darren Webster, Jamie Hughes, Jermaine Wattimena and James Wilson to reach his first ProTour final.

"I'm amazed, this morning I never would've imagined winning this title," admitted Hopp, who will make his World Grand Prix debut against Dave Chisnall on Sunday evening.

"Maybe the experience of winning the European Tour title earlier in the year was the difference in the final.

"Everyone was worried that I could be a one-hit wonder and I would never win another title, which is hard to handle but I proved today it was not a one-off.

"I'm still very young and I'm not consistent but it's a great feeling to come out on top of 128 great players."

A tight start to the final saw Hopp miss a number of opportunities to break throw as Razma, who sensationally knocked out world number one Van Gerwen earlier in the day, kept himself in the contest at 3-4 down.

The crucial break eventually came for Hopp in leg eight, pinning double four with his last dart in hand to go within a leg of victory.

That proved to be the key moment of the match as the German number one tidied up 68 to wrap up a 6-3 win and clinch the £10,000 top prize.

Despite defeat in the final, it was a day to remember for Razma who became the first Latvian player to make the final of a PDC ranking event.

Almost a year to the day since making the semi-finals of last year's Players Championship 20 in Dublin, Razma replicated that form at the Citywest with wins over Peter Hudson, Danny Noppert, Gerwyn Price, Ronny Huybrechts, Van Gerwen and Andrew Gilding.

Two-time World Champion Van Gerwen landed a nine-dart leg in his 6-2 third round triumph over Kyle Anderson, in a game which saw the Dutchman average 109.5.

The nine-dart feat was also achieved earlier in the day by youngster Killington, who continued to impress having won a PDC Unicorn Development Tour title last weekend and qualified for his first European Tour event on Thursday night.

Wilson continued his impressive form in the second-half of 2018, dumping out two-time World Champion Adrian Lewis en route to the semi-finals, while Gilding won through to his first ProTour semi-final in over two years.

Elsewhere, Champions League of Darts champion Gary Anderson went down to Van Gerwen at the last 16 stage, world number two Peter Wright was defeated by Hughes in round three and World Champion Rob Cross was a victim of Wilson in the last 16.

The Players Championship weekend continues on Saturday (September 29) in Dublin and will be streamed live on PDCTV-HD across both days.