Charlie Manby stormed to his maiden PDC ranking title with a resounding 8-2 win over Maik Kuivenhoven in Wednesday's Players Championship 31. The 21-year-old Huddersfield native produced a series of dominant displays to also confirm his qualification for next month's Grand Slam of Darts. Manby, who had not progressed beyond the quarter-finals of a PDC ranking event prior to Wednesday, reaffirmed his potential to pocket the £15,000 top prize on Dutch soil. His victory marks a milestone in his young career and signals his arrival among the darts elite.
Manby opened his campaign in style, averaging 104 in his 6-1 demolition of Karel Sedlacek, before landing back-to-back 13-darters to complete a comeback win over Dennie Olde Kalter. The youngster then followed up a 6-4 success against Adam Leek with an inspired 112.16 average against Dominik Gruellich, winning each of his last four legs in 12 darts to race into the last eight. Manby later reeled off six consecutive legs from 3-0 adrift to sink Alan Soutar, though he was forced to survive a fightback from Beau Greaves to prevail 7-5 in a compelling semi-final. This set up a winner-takes-all clash against Kuivenhoven, whom he punished with a tentative start to race into a five-leg lead. The win caps a remarkable week for Manby, who also reflected on narrowly missing out on the World Youth Championship semi-finals for the Grand Slam, calling this qualification "10 times better."
Beau Greaves also performed magnificently at Maassport Den Bosch to climb up to seventh spot on the Players Championship rankings. The Doncaster darter produced statement wins against Niels Zonneveld and Kevin Doets, launching an astonishing fightback from 5-2 down. Elsewhere, Cristo Reyes achieved a nine-darter, and high-profile casualties included Nathan Aspinall, Jermaine Wattimena, Damon Heta and Joe Cullen.
Source: Sky Sports Champions League · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing