PDC World Darts Championship 2025 results: Damon Heta hits nine-darter in loss to Luke Woodhouse
The Australian celebrated wildly after hitting double 12 to complete the perfect leg – with Woodhouse raising his opponent’s arm as a lively crowd roared their approval – on his way to winning the second set.
It is the second nine-darter of this year’s tournament after Dutchman Christian Kist achieved the feat in the second round.
Kist also lost the match and nine of the 16 players to make a nine-dart finish at Alexandra Palace have gone on to lose the match.
Heta – who narrowly missed out on a nine-darter in the previous round – collects £60,000 for the feat, with the same amount being awarded by sponsors to a charity and to one spectator inside Alexandra Palace in London.
However, it is Woodhouse who advances to the last 16 as he fought back from 3-1 down to winning the final three sets without dropping a leg.
“I’ve got no words at all – the crowd has been fantastic,” Woodhouse told Sky Sports. “I don’t think it was the greatest game in the world but I’ve managed to come through it. I am over the moon.
“I was just trying to put him under as much pressure as possible. I just wanted to keep on top of him as much as possible and then see what happened from there.”
On Heta’s nine-darter, Woodhouse added: “Me and Damo are good friends. We go and play golf together a lot and hang out and practice a lot.
“I know he was gutted when he missed the double 12 in the previous round so it was brilliant. The crowd went wild and you couldn’t not celebrate.”
Heta is the 15th seed to be knocked out already at the World Championship and the fourth of the top 10 seeds to depart.
Woodhouse will face Stephen Bunting in the next round after the eighth seed saw off Latvia’s Madars Razma in the last game of the afternoon session.
Bunting, the reigning Masters champion and former BDO world champion, put in an accomplished display to secure a 4-1 win.
Having taken out 113 to win the first set, ‘The Bullet’ swiftly won the second before being pegged back by Razma, who stole the third with a 119 checkout.
Bunting had responded well to minor setbacks throughout the match and did so again in the fourth.
Razma’s 149 out took it to a deciding leg but fan favourite Bunting held throw and sealed the victory with a 96 that ensured he finished with an average of 100.06.
“I’ve dreamt about winning this tournament for the past 20 years and I’d love to do it,” Bunting said. “With the Bunting Army behind me, who is going to stop us?”
Meanwhile, Jonny Clayton held off a valiant fightback from Daryl Gurney to take the deciding set and move into the fourth round with a 4-3 win.
Welshman Clayton edged the first set then produced checkouts of 160 and 120 to clinch the second and third respectively.
But the seventh seed faltered in the fourth and Gurney took advantage, averaging over 100 in the the next two sets to make it 3-2 before levelling the match after a somewhat comical leg, in which both players missed multiple darts at double.
Clayton came through in the decider, though, shrugging off four missed darts for the match to hit double four to set up a fourth-round tie against Gerwyn Price or Joe Cullen.
“That is my luck,” he told Sky Sports. “In games like that you need a little bit of luck. He missed a few chances and I missed a few and at 3-3 my heart started to beat big time.”
Afternoon Session (12:30 GMT)
Third round
Damon Heta 3-4 Luke Woodhouse
Jonny Clayton 4-3 Daryl Gurney
Stephen Bunting 4-1 Madars Razma
Evening Session (19:00 GMT)
Third round
Gerwyn Price v Joe Cullen
Jermaine Wattimena v Peter Wright
Luke Humphries v Nick Kenny
Follow live text commentary on the evening session on the BBC Sport website and app from 18:45 GMT.