"Hopefully not as bad a start as last year" - Florian Hempel keen to kick on in 2024

Florian Hempel was a guest on the latest episode of Elmar Paulke and Robert Marijanovic's Game On podcast. The 33-year-old spoke on Monday morning ahead of the third Players Championship tournament about his start to the season, his approach to competition days and his goals for 2024.

As the podcast recording took place just a few hours before the start of the tournament, Hempel gave some exciting insights into his preparation for the competition: "I'm now in my fourth year on the Pro Tour, so I'm not an old hand yet, but I know Tour life. When I go to the tournaments, everything isn't quite so new anymore and there's no reason to be nervous."

Hempel arrives at the venue around ten o'clock, four hours before the tournament starts, so that he doesn't have to split his time on the practice board with other players. "I don't have any real routines beforehand. But if I win the tournament today, we'll probably start the ritual of recording a podcast before every tournament," Hempel joked.

On Monday, however, Hempel lost his first round match 6-1 against Kevin Doets, but reached the round of 16 a day later, beating two top four players, Michael Smith and Nathan Aspinall, along the way. "Fortunately, my game is there. I still need a bit more timing, then I could have won one or two more matches last week. But I have a completely different confidence in myself and just want to play," said Hempel on Monday morning.

"Of course I had the thought in my head of hopefully not starting as badly as last year. But I also changed a few things in January and went to England with a different mindset." Hempel has often struggled with form crises in recent years, especially at the start of the season, and is playing to retain his Tour Card this year. However, the 33-year-old is focusing on the positives. "The ProTour calendar is heavily geared towards the second half of the year anyway, in which we will play a lot of tournaments. I can rely on my second half of the year, which is why I'm much more relaxed in the first half," joked Hempel.

After four tournaments played, Hempel is the third-best German in 46th place on the Players Championship Order of Merit (£3,500). Hempel will play his first major of the year at the UK Open from March 1st to 3rd.