Neil Duff takes first WDF titles in 14 months with dominant weekend in Romania

The Romanian city of Timișoara played host this past weekend to the inaugural Eastern European Darts Challenge, a new addition to the WDF circuit that brought together some of the region’s leading talents.

The action began on Saturday with the Timișoara Darts Grand Prix, which ran up to and including the semi-finals, while Sunday was dedicated entirely to the Timișoara International Darts Open. Remarkably, both events produced the same champions: Northern Ireland’s Neil Duff and Czech star Jitka Cisarova.

Duff, the 2022 WDF World Champion, was in imperious form throughout Sunday’s Open. His route to the final saw him dispatch Croatia’s Neven Resetar, Romanians Alexandru Puiu, Andrei Mladen and Adrian Frim, before surviving a stern test from Czech thrower Jiri Brejcha in the semi-finals. Brejcha, like Resetar earlier in the day, forced the match to a deciding seventh leg, but Duff held his nerve.

In the final, the Northern Irishman faced Romania’s Laszlo Kadar and produced a clinical display to claim the title with a 5–0 whitewash. Saturday’s semi-final line-up was also denied a repeat when Anthony Brown eliminated Brejcha in the last eight. Meanwhile, Serbia’s Mladen Radosavljevic endured back-to-back heartbreaks – falling one leg short of the final on both days, losing 4–3 to Kadar on Sunday and by the same scoreline to Bai Szolt on Saturday. Slovakia’s Vladimir Zatko also made the quarter-finals twice, but was stopped on each occasion by eventual finalists – first Duff, then Kadar.

In the women’s competition, Cisarova began her Sunday campaign with a 4–2 victory over Belgium’s Emilie D’Hondt before meeting Hungary’s Greta Tekauer in the final. Tekauer had edged out Romania’s Giulia Olteanu 4–3 in a tense semi-final, but Cisarova proved untouchable in the decider, storming to a 4–0 win.

The pair had also contested Saturday’s Grand Prix final. Tekauer reached that match with a 4–3 win over fellow Hungarian Veronika Ihasz in the semi-finals, having earlier dispatched Romania’s last remaining hope Oana Cimpoca 4–1 in the quarters. But once again, it was Cisarova who prevailed, this time by a 5–2 margin to complete her perfect weekend.

The weekend’s results not only crowned two deserving champions but also underlined the growing strength of darts in Eastern Europe, with several nations making deep runs and producing high-quality contests in Timișoara’s first major international darts double-header.