If Stephen Bunting retains his Masters title, do not anticipate him to rejoice in a similar way to final yr.
Properly, that is if a preferred fan idea is to be believed.
3
Bunting loved the crowning second of his profession thus far when he received the Masters final yr in Milton Keynes.
The Liverpudlian beat Michael van Gerwen 11-7 within the closing to take house the trophy and a cool £65,000 in prize cash.
Nevertheless, some darts followers believed they have been onto one thing when, 9 months on from his Masters triumph, Bunting’s spouse Keila gave start to a child boy, Theo.
It left many believing Bunting loved fairly the celebration the night time of his win.
Nevertheless, Bunting shot down the favored idea and reiterated he’s greater than content material along with his comfortable household of 4.
“There’s positively not going to be any extra infants,” Bunting stated.
“That is the final one for certain. Individuals put one and three collectively, did not they? And began making assumptions.
“I can guarantee you after the win within the Masters final yr, Keila had already gone house.”
Bunting’s bid to defend his Masters crown shall be harder this yr given the match has undergone a revamp.
The winner of this yr’s occasion will take house a whopping £100,000, an enormous improve from Bunting’s prize of £65,000 final yr.
3
There had additionally been the introduction of preliminary rounds as 64 gamers competed for eight spots in the principle draw reserved for qualifiers.
By advantage of being one of many top-seeded gamers, Bunting was drawn towards Scotland‘s Willie Borland within the opening spherical.
Borland is a well-known title to darts followers as he turned an immediate hero on the World Championship in December 2021 when he hit a nine-darter to win the match in a deciding leg.
However Borland comes up towards a model of Bunting that’s in red-hot type having received the Bahrain Masters earlier in January.
The 39-year-old beat Gerwyn Worth 8-4 within the closing to get his yr off to a dream begin.
Bunting adopted it up with a sensational run to the ultimate of the Dutch Masters per week later.
3
On his technique to the ultimate, Bunting beat teenage sensation Luke Littler regardless of the latter producing a sensational common of 107.59.
Sadly Bunting could not carry the momentum into the ultimate as former world champion Rob Cross prevailed 8-5.