Damon Heta may have treated himself to a Rolex but time ran out for Australia's top darts flinger at the World Masters after he was outplayed in the quarter-finals by world No.1 and new champion Luke Humphries.
Heta - 'The Heat' to his growing darting fan club - ran cold at the worst moment as Humphries, the world champion before teenager Luke Littler took his crown at the start of the year, hammered him four sets to one in their last-eight meeting at Milton Keynes on Sunday.
It was the prelude to Humphries going on to rediscover his masterful best while defeating battling Welshman Jonny Clayton 6-5 in a monumental final later in the evening.
HUMPHRIES SEES OFF HETA! 👏
— PDC Darts (@OfficialPDC) February 2, 2025
Luke Humphries is the first player through to the semi-finals of the Winmau World Masters!
The world number one averages 104 to defeat Damon Heta 4-1!
📺 https://t.co/MihfqStAVW #WWMasters pic.twitter.com/ZScjgs4zaN
In the day's big shock, the 18-year-old hot favourite Littler also crashed out of the tournament in the quarters, beaten by Clayton 4-2 after the youngster had an off-day with his double-shooting.
Perth's Heta, who's risen to No.8 in the world since basing himself in England, bought himself his luxury watch after scooping an Stg 60,000 ($A120,000) sponsor's windfall for a nine-dart finish at the recent world championships.
It was a sign of how the 37-year-old former roofer has hit the big time in the boom sport, but despite success in smaller events, he's yet to deliver in one of the major televised tournaments on the Professional Darts Corporation circuit in Britain and Europe.
Again, he came up short on the big occasion, despite a stirring start to his quarter-final when he levelled the match at one-set apiece with an average well over 100 only to then succumb to Humphries' power scoring.
Humphries won nine of the 13 legs, averaging a formidable 104.24 including six maximum 180s, while Heta's average dipped below a ton to 97.78.
CLAYTON STUNS LITTLER 🔴
— PDC Darts (@OfficialPDC) February 2, 2025
A devastating display of finishing from Jonny Clayton as he defies a 108 average from Luke Littler to claim a 4-2 win.
He's into the Semi-Finals in Milton Keynes!
📺 https://t.co/MihfqStAVW#WWMasters pic.twitter.com/J2turHDJ1t
The 29-year-old Humphries went on to defeat Dutchman Danny Noppert 5-2 in the semis and appeared to be cruising to victory in the best-of-11 set final as he raced into a 5-2 lead against Clayton, only for the Welshman to roar back, taking seven legs out of eight to take it to a best-of-three-legs decider.
But Humphries, who averaged 100.42 in the final even when missing 33 shots at doubles, held his nerve to lift his seventh major title in 15 months.
Littler had earlier demonstrated his amazing scoring power, averaging a superb 108.5 to "The Ferrett" Clayton's 103.96, but the youngster went awry on his doubles, managing to nail only seven of his 20 shots at the outer ring while the Welshman pinned nine from 15 (60 per cent).
