Florian Hempel was not in the mood after the end of the Darts World Cup. “Of course I’m disappointed. I would have liked to have won. It was a mixed game. The disappointment is great,” said the 32-year-old from Cologne after the thrilling 2-3 defeat against fellow English favorite Luke Humphries at DAZN.
The two professionals fought such an open duel at Alexandra Palace that for a long time it was hard to tell who was number five in the world – and who was the big outsider who had a bad year in 2022.
“The double quota was not as good as usual. You could feel the nervousness, millimeters decided against me today,” said Hempel at Sport1. Overall, the third-best German professional behind Gabriel Clemens and Martin Schindler can be satisfied with his tournament. He defeated Keegan Brown from England 3:2, and offered a decent fight to the English rising star Humphries. “It could have gone the other way, but my God, Luke won,” said Hempel, whose World Cup wages are £15,000.
Much was reminiscent of the previous year, when in round two Hempel also had to deal with a fellow favorite and surprisingly defeated him: Belgian Dimitri van den Bergh, who was also fifth seeded at the time. A year later it wasn’t enough. “It’s difficult to draw a conclusion shortly after the game. Luke definitely deserved to win,” said Hempel.
There was a small consolation for him: Unlike in the first game, when “Rocket Man” was played unannounced, this time Hempel was allowed to hear his own opening song “Kölsche Jung” from the speakers in “Ally Pally”. He explicitly did not want to complain about the annoying whistles from the British fans.
