Ascholdinger Darts World Cup: Qualifier Harrer wins, Ermer overthrows four-time champion Josef Rieger from the throne, and junior Franz Rieger (8) makes the hall tremble.
Ascholding - It's been a bad day for favorites.
One top-seeded player after the other bowed out at the 8th Ascholdinger Darts World Championship.
In the end, rookie Benedikt Harrer made the sensation perfect by throwing himself into the final as a qualifier in his first World Cup participation.
There he didn't give the ninth in the world ranking list from Ascholding, Florian Volz, a chance and clearly won 4:1.
The new champion only needed one word to express his impressions at the award ceremony: "Incredible!"
Bad day for favorites
The "Eli Pally" trembled for the first time soon after the start of the tournament when eight-year-old Franz Rieger, son of four-time world champion Josef Rieger, won 3-2 in round one against Kilian Kranz.
In the second round, however, the youngest World Cup participant of all time was beaten 3-1 by Michael Pertold, number 26 in the world rankings.
However, this could not harm the junior's growing self-confidence.
"We need a bigger bed for him now," said Dad, laughing.
Two women in the starting field
Round two was also the end of the line for the only two women in the starting field.
Vroni Müller, like Harrer for the first time, failed after a 3:1 win against Sepp Kastenmüller at the later semi-finalist Franz Ermer with 0:3.
Melanie Raab said goodbye with the same result against a very strong, 15-year-old Quirin Walleitner, in round one she defeated Toni Bäumler 3-1.
Out for highly traded number two in round two
Some experienced players, who had been given chances for the final, also had to end early.
Gregory Koutis, number two in the world rankings, failed in round two against fifth-placed Michael Holzer, who at least made it to the quarter-finals, where he lost 3-1 to Florian Volz (number ninth).
Christian Lasch (number three) was thrown out on lap two, after the first round it was finito for number six, Hans Walleitner.
Best match of the tournament
In the quarter-finals, the sensational end of the tournament also came for the number one, Josef Rieger.
In the round of 16, the four-time world champion had the best match of the tournament with Dominik Veitinger and narrowly asserted himself 3:2.
Then he lost to Ermer with the same result.
“The rules are simple: it goes down from 301, whoever gets to zero first wins.
And Franz managed to do that before,” the champ calmly accepted that he had shown nerves in the quarter-finals and awarded match darts.
His reasoning: "Even if you've won four times here, you sometimes have a tremor."
Finale Volz against Harrer the big surprise
So the way was clear for such an unexpected end.
"The fact that Florian Volz and Benedikt Harrer reached the final was definitely the surprise of the tournament," said moderator Hansi Makrutzki.
Volz (34), who has attended every World Cup so far, has had two quarter-final appearances as his greatest successes.
His opponent Harrer qualified for the first time this year and could hardly believe his luck (see below).
Both opponents played a convincing tournament and only gave up three legs in their five rounds on the way to the final.
The highlight of the last match of the night was a 125 finish in the second game, with which the crowd's favorite Harrer robbed his opponent Volz, who was down to 20, of an almost certain leg equalization and probably also a bit of nerves.
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Florian Volz lost 4-1 to Benedikt Harrer in the final.
© Rudi Stallein
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Entry by Franz Ermer, who defeated four-time champion Josef Rieger 3-2 in the quarter-finals.
© Rudi Stallein
