The last three weekends saw more WDF darting action, with the inaugural Slovenian Open, The Apatin Open in Serbia and the prestigious New Zealand Open. Inside the WDF's Andrew Sinclair reports on how the events unfolded.
Slovakian Open
There were only nine players involved in the separate women’s Slovenian Open competition, which was won by Mojca Mužić.
Both her and her opponent in the final, Branka Krček, dropped just two legs in their opening two games. Unsurprisingly their meeting went all the way, before Mužić took it 6-5 to claim her first WDF title.
Apatin Open
In the Women's Apatin Open, Veronika Ihász led a strong Hungarian contingent in the field of 15 as she sought, and secured, a sixth successive triumph in the competition.
She met the other name that jumped off the entry list, Iran’s Mozhgan Rahmani, in the last four but absolutely blew her away, running out a convincing 5-0 winner.
In the final, Ihász met compatriot Adrienn Végső, who had beaten reigning Europe Cup Youth singles champion Tamara Kovacs 5-2 in the other semi-final. Ihász had far too much in the end, averaging 65.57 as she won 6-1 and also secured her spot in the World Masters.
New Zealand Open
Desi Mercer won the eighth WDF ranking title of her career in the women’s singles, defeating the impressive Mary-Anne Teinaki 5-3 in the final.
After defeating defending champion Tina Osborne 4-1 in the quarter-finals, Mercer whitewashed Chrissy Hay, playing in her first semi-final of the year, 4-0 to reach the final.
On the other side of the bracket, Teinaki had dispatched Dawn Unuka, Rachel Padget and regional ranking leader Wendy Harper with relative ease before coming unstuck against Mercer.
Much like in the men’s competition, both Mercer and Teinaki qualify for the World Masters in the Netherlands later this year.
Mercer and Teinaki renewed hostilities the following day in the NZDC National Singles, with Mercer once again coming out on top. Teinaki had her chances, and forced their second meeting of the week to a last-leg decider but Mercer once again triumphed to complete a memorable week on the South Island.
Andrew Sinclair - @InsidetheWDF