Chris Dobey wins Players Championship 7 and becomes one of three players on the day to hit a nine-dart finish, alongside Steve Beaton and Daryl Gurney; Luke Littler falls in last 16- watch Week 11 of Premier League Darts, live on Sky Sports from 7pm on Thursday
Monday 8 April 2024 21:46, UK
Chris Dobey beat Josh Rock 8-4 to win Players Championship 7 in Leicester on a day on which he was one of three players to hit a nine-dart finish.
'Hollywood' - beaten in the Players Championship 4 final by Damon Heta in February - produced his perfect leg in the third round against Mickey Mansell on Monday.
The nine-dart feat had also earlier been achieved by Steve Beaton against James Hurrell in the first round and then by Daryl Gurney in the second against Jeffrey de Graaf.
Dobey becomes the seventh different man to win a Players Championship event this year, after Luke Littler, Gary Anderson, Ryan Searle, Heta, Raymond Van Barneveld and Dave Chisnall.
The 33-year-old fired in a 170 finish in the deciding leg of his second-round meeting with Mike De Dekker, while he reeled off seven of the last eight legs against Rock in the final to win from 3-1 down and take his fourth PDC title.
Dobey said: "I gave myself one task this year, which was to improve my floor game. I think I've done that so far. I'm playing well, I'm going into games feeling confident, and if you're confident, you can go a long way.
"I finally broke into the top 16 after the World Championship and the aim is to stay there now. The hard work starts now, so dedication is the key."
Littler - the winner of Players Championship 1 a couple of months ago - and Humphries were among the big names to miss out on the latter stages in Leicester.
Littler - victorious on the last two Premier League Darts evenings, in Belfast and Manchester respectively - rallied from 5-3 to edge put world No 1 Humphries 6-5 in the last 32, in what was a rematch of January's World Championship final that Humphries claimed 7-4 in sets.
But the 17-year-old was then beaten in a last-leg decider by Ross Smith in the following round as his opponent advanced to the quarters alongside Dobey, Rock, Gurney, Ryan Meikle, Luke Woodhouse, Ian White and Frenchman Thibault Tricole.
Dobey knocked off Gurney 6-4 in the last eight and Smith 7-3 in the semis, while Rock recorded exactly the same margins of victory over Tricole and Woodhouse respectively.
Michael van Gerwen - who has lost six of his seven Premier League matches since three straight night victories - was dumped out in the second round by White after shipping a 4-2 lead to lose 6-5.
Van Gerwen, Littler, Humphries, Rob Cross, Gerwyn Price, Peter Wright, Nathan Aspinall and Michael Smith head to Birmingham for Night 11 of the Premier League, live on Sky Sports from 7pm from Thursday.
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