Clemens, Kurz and Hopp delight home crowd in Hildesheim with opening round victories

After Lukas Wenig and Dragutin Horvat won through in the afternoon session, there has been more Host Nation winners on the opening night of the German Darts Championship.

Max Hopp, Gabriel Clemens and Nico Kurz, three of Germany’s top players all claimed victories to delight the crowd in Halle 39.

Clemens began and despite not producing his best, he eased to a 6-1 win over Steve West with his doubling proving pivotal. The latter only hit 1/5 while ‘The German Giant’ finished on 46% (6/13). This was despite only an average of 89.

Kurz had it a bit more difficult with the top German prospect reeling off five consecutive legs from 4-1 down to defeat Jason Lowe 6-4 with 75% on the doubles in a high quality affair. The former averaged 97.5 while in defeat, Lowe was at 100 with two 180’s.

Hopp concluded the trio of wins with the former World Youth Champion and European Tour winner delighting the crowd with a 6-2 win with four 180’s en route against Reece Robinson. It was a high checkout of 118 for ‘The Maximiser’ who now has Ian White next up.

Evening Session (1900 local time, 1800 BST)

Danny Noppert (102.57) 6-2 (92.89) Josh Payne

Steve Brown (86.08) 3-6 (91.05) Adam Hunt

Steve West (86.02) 1-6 (89.56) Gabriel Clemens

Jason Lowe (100.15) 4-6 (97.57) Nico Kurz

Reece Robinson (88.3) 2-6 (94.86) Max Hopp

Jeffrey de Zwaan v Devon Petersen

Chris Dobey v Ryan Murray

Michael Smith v Alan Tabern