Damon Heta beat Stephen Bunting – who had earlier hit a nine-darter against Rob Cross – in a thrilling last-leg decider to win Players Championship 20 in Leicester.

But a first-round exit for Michael Smith has left the former world champion’s hopes of qualifying for the Betfred World Matchplay on July 19-27 in serious jeopardy heading into Wednesday’s second day of the ProTour double-header at the Mattioli Arena.

World No 9 Heta, though, is already guaranteed a place in Blackpool and warmed up for the Winter Gardens by claiming his second Players Championship event win of the year, beating Bunting 8-7 in a thrilling final.

With momentum swinging dramatically back and forth between the finalists, Bunting raced into a 2-0 lead only for Heta to win the next six legs and move within two more of the title at 6-2 ahead.

But Bunting was not done and fought back to win five of the next six, taking the final to a decider at 7-7 where Heta eventually took out 65 with a double-18 finish.

Bunting hit the perfect nine-dart leg in what in itself was a similarly-gripping semi-final against Cross, in which he came from behind to win 7-6. That made amends for missing double 12 after eight perfect darts in his first-round victory against Richard Veenstra.

Australia’s Heta beat Gerwyn Price 7-5 in his semi-final, having earlier demolished Daryl Gurney 6-1 in the last eight.

On a high-quality day of darts, the first round did produce two nine-darters – Josh Rock against Sebastian Bialecki and Leon Weber against Tytus Kanik.

Smith faces semi-final quest to reach Blackpool

But there were no such first-round highlights for Smith, the 2023 world champion.

‘Bully Boy’ lost 6-4 to Belgium’s Kim Huybrechts and now must reach at least the semi-finals on Wednesday in Players Championship 21 if he is to book place at the Winter Gardens, where he was runner-up to Cross in 2019 and appeared every year since 2014.

This week’s double-header in Leicester is crucial to determine the final qualifying spots at the World Matchplay when it starts next week, live on Sky Sports.

The top 16 players from the PDC Order of Merit will be seeded at the Winter Gardens, where they be joined by the next-best 16 qualifiers based on the 12-month ProTour Order of Merit.

Smith, who spoke openly in January about suffering from arthritis in his right hand, his throwing hand, is currently ranked 21st in the world and started the day £4,250 outside the additional 16 ProTour qualifying places on offer.

2025 Players Championship 20 results

Last 16
Gerwyn Price 6-5 Dom Taylor
Jonny Clayton 6-2 Luke Woodhouse
Damon Heta 6-3 Madars Razma
Daryl Gurney 6-4 Chris Dobey
Stephen Bunting 6-3 Danny Noppert
Ross Smith 6-4 Owen Bates
Rob Cross 6-5 Jermaine Wattimena
Josh Rock 6-3 Keane Barry

Quarter-Finals
Gerwyn Price 6-4 Jonny Clayton
Damon Heta 6-1 Daryl Gurney
Stephen Bunting 6-1 Ross Smith
Rob Cross 6-5 Josh Rock

Semi-Finals
Damon Heta 7-5 Gerwyn Price
Stephen Bunting 7-6 Rob Cross

Final
Damon Heta 8-7 Stephen Bunting

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