"Not too bad for a roofer from Perth" - Damon Heta hits double milestone at UK Open

Damon Heta managed to kill two birds with one stone at the UK Open last weekend. He reached the semifinals of a ranking major for the first time, also making his debut in the top-10 of the world rankings.

'The Heat' won over successively Simon Whitlock (10-8), Nathan Aspinall (10-9), Gian van Veen (10-8) and Luke Littler (10-8), before the 36-year-old Australian lost 11-6 to Dimitri van den Bergh in the last four.

In an initial review of his performance, Heta looked back with mixed feelings. ''Happy with the grit I showed leasing up to the semi but ran out of steam in the end,'' Heta wrote.

The former World Cup champion then went on to congratulate Van den Bergh. ''Well done to Dimi for doing the goods and becoming UK Open champion. He's putting in a lot of work behind the scenes and going in the right direction."

Heta was also enormously happy with his own milestones achieved. ''Also stoked to make my first semifinal at a ranking major and I'm now ninth in the world rankings. Not too bad for a roofer from Perth,'' Heta said.