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Smith throws two nine-darters before final whitewash

Smith throws two nine-darters before final whitewash

BBC News13-05-2025
Ross Smith demolished Brendan Dolan 8-0 to win the 16th Players Championship of the year - having thrown two nine-darters on the way to the final.Englishman Smith, 36, had reached the final Hildesheim, Germany, with a scintillating run as he won 16 legs on the spin.He is just the third player, alongside Michael van Gerwen and Phil Taylor, to land multiple nine-darters in the same Players Championship event.The final was a formality as Smith notched up an average of 104.56 and whitewashed 51-year-old Northern Irishman Dolan."I don't actually feel I've played that well - sometimes luck is on your side," Smith told the PDC."I want to win all the time. I will keep working hard to win another major event."World number one Luke Humphries, world champion Luke Littler and Van Gerwen were among the players to give the event a miss.There are 34 Players Championship events across the year, with the competition's finals held in Minehead in November.
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