After his stirring adventure in London, Gabriel Clemens wished for some time to breathe deeply.
“It outweighs the disappointment. I lost, my mood is not so good. Only then do you realize that, so I can draw a lot of positive things from it,” said the 39-year-old darts professional after winning the World Cup semifinals Lost 6-2 to world-class English player Michael Smith. The dream of the World Cup final has burst.
Show fights and galas are coming up
“I’m definitely ready for more performances. Hopefully I’ll have a day off now. Then I’m looking forward to going back on stage,” said Clemens, who awarded the outstanding performance of “Bully Boy” as the deserved winner and finalist congratulated. Show fights and galas will be on the program for the next few weeks, before the focus of attention will be on the sport again with the Masters in Milton Keynes on the last weekend of January (27th to 29th January).
Clemens wrote German darts history in the Alexandra Palace, where several hundred German fans have been coming every day since Christmas. First he was the first German to make it into a World Cup quarter-finals – then in the biggest game of his career to date he also defeated the Welsh premier Gerwyn Price 5-1. “The mood was fantastic in Ally Pally”, praised Clemens after his semi-final. Even against the athletically superior world-class man Smith, the crowd in London was more on Clemens’ side.
Clemens does not believe in his own participation in the Premier League
Despite reaching the semi-finals, Clemens does not believe in participating in the Premier League. “No, that’s more wishful thinking than anything else. Premier League is a super cool tournament, but there are others who deserve it more than me,” he said on DAZN.
The Premier League is contested with eight players, the top four in the ranking list are seeded. Various media reported on Monday that Clemens could get a so-called wild card for the invitation tournament. So far, no German has ever played permanently in the Premier League. Max Hopp got a guest appearance for one evening at the station in Berlin in 2019. Clemens will move up into the top 20 in the world rankings, but is still a long way from the top ten. He would have needed the world title in London for that.
