"He punished every single mistake" - Stephen Bunting looks back on lost final against Raymond van Barneveld

Stephen Bunting was close to a Pro Tour title last Monday but lost to Raymond van Barneveld 8-1 in the final of Players Championship 5.

It was already his second final of the season for Bunting, after he somewhat surprisingly won the Masters earlier this year. 'The Bullet' looked back on his final in Hildesheim with mixed feelings.

''Bitter sweet really. Of course I was thrilled to have such a long run on Monday, especially given the way the first four Pro Tour events went. Disappointed with my performance in the final against Raymond [van Barneveld]. I was playing well but for some reason, I just couldn’t get going and to be fair, he punished every single mistake.''

In the end, Bunting could also look back on his result with some satisfaction, after his previous Players Championship tournaments this year ended early. "But all in all, I am very happy with getting my Pro Tour season up and running. These are our bread and butter and you need to be continually picking up money to stay around the top of the rankings. I will as always take the positives from the past few days, of which there are quite a lot and push on,” concluded the current world number 16.