Western Morning News (Saturday)
Lowe knocks out fourth seed Michael Smith
WITH the surname Lowe and the initial ‘J’ perhaps it was not entirely surprising, but it was Jason Lowe rather than his illustrious namesake John who made the headlines at the PDC World Championship on Wednesday night.
One of the sport’s greatest players, John Lowe won the BDO version of the world championship on three occasions, in 1979, 1987 and 1993. However, at this year’s PDC championship, Jason Lowe produced the shock of the event so far with a 3-1 victory over fourth seed Michael Smith.
Lowe, who only decided to enter Q School at the last minute earlier this year, led from the front after taking the first set of the match with three 180s, averaging almost 100 with 2019 runner-up Smith unable to win a leg.
Smith had to wait until the third set to get his first leg on the board, and reduced the deficit to 2-1, but it was not enough as Lowe took out 101 to win the match.
“To be honest, there was no pressure on me whatsoever,” said Lowe afterwards. “Obviously I was the underdog,
Michael is a fantastic player, but I just thought I’d enjoy the darts, and I did, and I played fantastic.
“On my day I can beat anybody, Michael struggled and I just fed off that.”
On his last-minute decision to enter the PDC’s qualifying rounds, Lowe added: “I flipped a coin, it landed on heads, and I went to Q School.
“I’ve not done too badly, I’ve had a fantastic year.”
■ SWIMMING: Chinese swimmer Sun Yang, 29, has had his appeal against an eightyear doping suspension given by the Court of Arbitration for Sport upheld by the Swiss Federal Tribunal.
Yang was first cleared of wrongdoing by Fina, the swimming federation, in January 2019, but after an appeal by the World Anti
Doping Agency to CAS that decision was overturned.
Three-time Olympic champion Sun missed a test in 2018 and was given an eight-year ban as it was his second offence. He had served a three-month suspension in 2014.
■ TENNIS: Heather Watson and teenager Anton Matusevich claimed the women’s and men’s titles respectively at the Battle of the Brits Premier League of Tennis event in Roehampton this week.
Watson, 28, secured top spot by maintaining her 100 per cent record at the four-day event with a 7-6, 6-2 victory over Fran Jones.
Matusevich, 19, won his decisive final match against Jack Draper 6-3, 2-6, 10-8. The result meant the pair finished level on seven points in the standings with Matusevich taking the title on the head-tohead record.
Andy Murray finished third in the men’s event with British number one Dan Evans fourth.