James Wade defeated Justin Pipe 6-3 to clinch victory in the German Darts Classic Players Championship on Saturday.
World number three wins first ranking tournament since June
James Wade defeated Justin Pipe 6-3 to clinch victory in the German Darts Classic Players Championship on Saturday.
The world number three secured his first ranking win since the UK Open in June and his first Players Championship title since September 2010 with the triumph at Gladbeck's Van Der Valk Hotel.
Wade defeated Reece Robinson, Dave Smith, Wes Newton, Dave Chisnall and John Henderson to reach the semis.
There, he edged past Mervyn King 6-5 in a high-quality encounter, hitting a 180 to set up double top for a 13-dart finish in the deciding leg after King had fought back from 4-1 down to level.
After splitting the opening four legs of the final with in-form Pipe, Wade took out 104 to win the fifth leg, broke in 14 darts and then hit a 180 and a 96 finish to move 5-2 up.
Hopes ended
Pipe replied with a 96 finish to win his third leg, but his hopes of winning a third successive Players Championship were ended soon afterwards.
In the next leg, the 39-year-old missed two darts to stay in the game and Wade took out double eight for victory.
Wade bagged the first prize of £6,000 while Pipe, who had recently won his first Players Championships in back-to-back events in Dublin and Killarney, took home £3,000.
Pipe failed to lose more than two legs in a match during his run to the final, whitewashing Gerhard Kremer and Steve Hine before also defeating Michael Rosenauer, Roland Scholten, Simon Whitlock and Jyhan Artut with 6-2 scorelines.
Artut won through to his first-ever Players Championship semi-final - and became the third German to reach a ProTour semi - with his run to the last four.
