No Interview with the Winner...
This year on the first evening of the World Championship four World Champions will stand on stage - three former and one reigning. Well one can even five as Keegan Brown is one as well though "only" the reigning youth champion. Over the next evening five more, a former Youth World Champion and a several times soft-dart World Champion will follow. Did it ever happen before as many World Champions stood on stage during a PDC World Championship?
Of course one of the reasons is that during the last years several BDO World Champions changed to the PDC. It started with Raymond van Barneveld in 2006, following were Jelle Klaasen, Christian Kist and - only last year - Stefan Bunting. All proved over the years they can well compete in the PDC.
Beside we've now a PDC Unicorn World Youth Championship. Two of the now three Champions compete in this World Championship. Only James Hubbard till now is not really established on the Pro Tour.
That we've got a soft-dart World Champion as well is part of the cooperation between the PDC and Dartslive though Dartslive didn't sent the winner of the World's tournament to London but American Scott Kirchner.
That all those players managed to qualify this year for the World Championship again shows that in the end it's not by accident they won a World Championship title. Even Christian Kist - who often was thought of as a one-day-wonder. by now has proved he is a real good dart player. No one doubted the others quality, for years now they belong to the top players.
One has to say that John Part this year couldn't live up to the expectations. Why probably only he will know...
So wait and watch who will win the crown this year. Will there be a totally new World Champion or will one of the "old" one's repeat his former triumph? Both Michael van Gerwen and the 16times World Champion Phil Taylor are seen as the favourites for the title.
The first evening brought already quite some upsets. John Part was eliminated by debutant Keegan Brown - might be not really an upset as Brown already had played strong in the Grand Slam. Had the Canadian been in the match earlier and had not "overslept" the first two sets he would have had a real chance. But of course winning the first two sets had increased the self-confidence of the World Youth Champion and when Part in the deciding set showed signs of weakness he grabbed his chances. Difficult to say what was Part's attitude entering the match but to be sure he was mad as hell afterwards.
I was a little bit surprised that Christian Perez did find no way into the match against Cristo Reyes. Somehow I had remembered him a better player. Or might be Reyes just played so strong.
Though the result didn't show it the battle between the two former Dutch Lakeside champions was rather evenly matched. Perhaps Klaasen was slightly stronger in the end but might be Kist had resigned as luck to be sure was not on his side at the evening. Might be Kist just felt not as comfortable - he's not as much experience on the big PDC stage and such a World Championship to be sure something special.
Michael van Gerwen to be sure was at first overwhelmed how unimpressed Joe Cullen seemed. But Cullen is not a player to be intimidated by a World Championship title and he is though not always a dangerous player. In this case again the result not really reflects the match -it was a much closer match. Though in this match one can't say van Gerwen was lucky as one could say about Klaasen. I would think Cullen probably played at his limits while van Gerwen is just able to up his game. That probably one of the differences between a good player and a top player - while Cullen reached his limits with this performance a top player is able to overstep this mark on a regular basis should it be necessary to win a match.
The last match - well that developed totally different then I would have predicted. Of course every year there is a qualifier to whom a top player falls victim but usually Newton is a solid player and of course no one had an idea who good Reyes would play. But Reyes cam on stage with a lot of self-confidence after his victory over Christian Perez, and Newton, similar to Part, somehow overslept the first two sets. And uncharacteristically he was not sure on his doubles. This ended in Newton getting unsure and in Reyes with even growing self-confidence. So Newton always managed to draw again but not to really get in front. Probably they would still play but luckily there is a sudden death leg. Reyes started to throw for the buss but referee Paul Hincks stopped him while Newton only shrugged his shoulders. So the match went on for a few throws but then was stopped a Sky staff and Russ Bray - you have to throw for the bull to start a sudden death leg in the World Championship! We now all know that.So the sudden death leg started again and Reyes showed now emotion finishing Newton off. But the Spanish group appeared in the Press Room still heated despite the win. I have no idea what Newton had to say, he had submerged immediately after the match.
As usually the winner would have been interviewed after the match and the female reporter already had grabbed her micro. But it turned out Reyes doesn't speak English at all. And so the interview in front of the camera was cancelled.