In a blistering start to the Selangor Darts Championships, Japan's Ryusei Azemoto proved to be in unbeatable form as he displayed superb skills to bag the men's singles title in the opening day of the tournament.
The title on Friday was also the Japanese ace's first WDF title.
Nicknamed 'Perseus' for his superb skills, Ryusei won the tournament after beating Malaysian star Muhammad Haikal Rusli 5-3 in the final, producing a 161-out in the last match and averaging an impressive 90.4 in the tournament.
Besides the championships' trophy, the Japanese also took home the top prize money of RM2,000, for his efforts.
Ryusei was in fine form from the very start was unbeaten throughout the tournament. The darter, who also took part for Japan in the PDC World Cup recently, then defeated Tenooth Sivalingam 4-1 in the semifinals.
The Japanese star, however, was given a run for the money in the final, by another local star Muhammad Haikal Rusli, a surprise finalist from KL - playing in his first Selangor Open final.
In a very tense and exciting final, the more experienced Ryusei finally prevailed and won 5-3 and ensured he bagged the top honours.
The women's tournament was just as exciting. The star of the show was expected to be Japan superstar darter Mayumi Ouchi, who is currently the No.1 ranked player in the WDF Asia Women's list. She was also part of the incredible Japan team that won last year's WDF Asia Pacific Cup title.
Her teammate, Yukie Sakaguchi, who was also part of team Japan who won the Asia Pacific title, was also expected to be among the frontrunners.
But it was Mayu Shimuzu, also a Japanese national player, who was in superb fform throughout the tournament and blasted her way into the final.
But Philippines Janice Penero Hinojales absolutely had other ideas too. She is the top ranked Philippines women player and also the reigning Cosmo Malaysia Open 2024 Women Singles category champion.
And Janice once again proved to be unbeatable in Malaysian soil when she produced exhilarating skills to win the tournament and that too after outclassing Mayu 4-0 in the final.
For her efforts, Janice also bagged RM1,000 and championship trophy for winning the title.
"Almost every match was an exciting tussle. It was a fantastic start to the tournament. I believe it will continue to just as exciting tomorrow (Saturday - May 10)," said Selangor Darts Association president C. Pathmanathan.
For the record, the Selangor Open is the first WDF ranked event in Malaysia in 2025 which will be followed by Cosmo Malaysia Open 2025 (WDF silver ranked category) on 22-24th August.
Some of the world's best darters have already confirmed their participation for this year's tournament which comes under the WDF bronze category and the competition for top prizes is expected to be red-hot.
Besides the best bulls-eye specialists from Malaysia, top darters from Brunei, Singapore, Thailand, Philippines and Japan will also be vying for the top honours in the tournament. The teams from Sabah and Sarawak were big in number and are also expected to be among the frontrunners in the next two days.
The red-hot competition, continues on Saturday as the darters do battle in the men's and women's doubles events. The highlight of the event, which is the team competition, will be played on Sunday (May 11).
