Florian Hempel narrowly missed a surprise coup at the Darts World Cup in London and lost the second round match against co-favorite Luke Humphries from England.
The 32-year-old from Cologne lost after a 2-1 lead with 2-3 sets and thus missed making it into round three, which he had mastered last year. Humphries is one of the best darts players in the world in 2022 and starts the World Championship at Alexandra Palace in fifth place. The ripped off Hempel showed a good game for a long time, but it just wasn’t enough for a progress like with compatriot Gabriel Clemens the night before.
After the gripping 3:2 first round win over England’s Keegan Brown, things started as planned for Hempel this time. First the organizers recorded his warm-up song “Kölsche Jung”, which was unexpectedly replaced by “Rocket Man” at the start – then the first sporting success was achieved: Hempel kept his nerves in the first sentence and surprised the clear favorite. “He’s a blatant scorer. It’s incredibly difficult to prepare for him,” said the German, who said he wasn’t “excited”.
Humphries became more stable at times as the game progressed, but the rarely high-quality game remained balanced. Hempel’s performance was reminiscent of last year, when he defeated fifth-seeded Belgian Dimitri van den Bergh in round two. Such a coup was within reach this time, but the favorite narrowly prevailed in the end.
