Wesley Plaisier left speechless and surprised after shock ProTour double final run after Challenge Tour call-up

PDC
Monday, 08 July 2024 at 19:00
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Wesley Plaisier reached a back-to-back Players Championship finals over the past week losing out to Ross Smith and Jonny Clayton and the warehouse operative could now be sat as a PDC ranking winner.
But the former World Master admits shock and surprise at reaching such a feat and didn't expect to be anywhere near the finals. No mind two in a row.
"I'm really proud about that and I don't have any words for this because of course I'm happy to play the ProTours and try to win a couple of games but never expected to reach the finals twice," said Plaisier to Weekly Dartscast.
"I was a little bit surprised. I was really nervous. It didn't look like it. I went 5-1 down and I thought I've got no chance because he was playing so good, he was hitting 180's easy. I said to myself get one leg, two legs, show what you're capable of. I missed the match dart but I'm really happy with my performance."
There was also a bit of needle between the Dutchman and Ryan Joyce during the second event and he said there was nothing on his end and he found it a bit bizarre. "He was not happy with me celebrating a 140 in the middle of the leg. He started to do that too. I'm not sure what that was about.
But while he will reset his expectations slightly for the rest of the year, he is setting his sights on Ally Pally and if not the Lakeside. "I try to play as many ProTours as I can. As soon as I get invited, I want to go there always. A couple of WDF tournaments, Challenge Tour. Hopefully the World Championships, I might play the Lakeside but would be great to get to Ally Pally."
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Often seen as the best player without a Tour Card, he could soon join the main PDC ranks.

Start in darts

Plaisier even playing darts was a fractious road from going to a tournament on a whim to breaking his elbow and regaining his confidence coming full circle in becoming a star of the European Tour and winning the World Masters.
"My friend told me there was a tournament couple of minutes away from our home and he said I had to go with him one time and have a look to see if I liked it. I liked it and I started to get an addiction," he continued.
"It took a couple of years as when I started I was happy when I throw 60 and from 2015 maybe, I was playing at a good level and I broke my elbow. I was thinking about going to national and international tournaments but after I broke my elbow I had to start again and hope I could play. So after six weeks, I was in hospital and the doctor said I could do everything with my arm once it was healed. He said maybe I could never stretch my arm ever."
"I can stretch my arm so I had no problems after that. But then I had to find back my level after two years. I finally won a tournament after nothing and it got better and better."
Lauded by Luke Humphries and others during his European Tour exploits, he admits the pressure got to him. He has since been seen as the best player without a Tour Card and is still the WDF World Master.
"I won the World Masters after that and the pressure got to me the first time I played Q-School after that. The World Masters meant a lot because I never would've dreamed about winning a major in my life. Everything came together that weekend and I was really proud. That's still the biggest win of my career. Then I got to WDF World Number One and qualified for Lakeside and I would've never dreamed about that."
A title he will defend in Hungary when it returns later this year. "I will of course, it's one of the biggest tournaments in the WDF and I want to play that. I am definitely going there."