Toylo beats Ilagan 5:3 – all-Filipino final at Asian Tour 28
Alexis Toylo wins Asian Tour 28 with a 5:3 victory over Lourence Ilagan. Haruki Muramatsu checks out the Big Fish, and Nitin Kumar posts the highest match average with 101.90.
Alexis Toylo wins Asian Tour 28. The Filipino beat his compatriot Lourence Ilagan 5:3 in the final – but with averages of 75.24 (Toylo) and 74.76 (Ilagan), the showpiece stayed well below the level of the semi-finals. Toylo won all seven matches; his tournament average of 82.13 was the second lowest of the four semi-finalists, while his best match average (97.44 in the last 32) was the highest.
Toylo's route to the title
| Round | Opponent | Result | Toylo average |
|---|---|---|---|
| Last 128 | Kehua Wang | 4:0 | 75.15 |
| Last 64 | Gan-Erdene Sharavsambuu | 4:2 | 75.46 |
| Last 32 | Teng Lieh Pu Po | 4:1 | 97.44 |
| Last 16 | Motomu Sakai | 4:0 | 82.36 |
| Quarter-final | Christian De Los Reyes | 4:1 | 81.03 |
| Semi-final | Alain AbiAbi | 5:2 | 88.22 |
| Final | Lourence Ilagan | 5:3 | 75.24 |
On his way to the final, Toylo dropped more than one leg per match only in the last 64 (4:2). In the semi-final against Alain AbiAbi (5:2) he posted 88.22, his second-best average of the tournament.
Ilagan: three tight matches on the way to the final
Lourence Ilagan (tournament average 85.11) had the tougher route: after a 4:1 against Shoya Ota, a 4:1 with 95.18 against Wenqing Liu and a 4:1 against Noel Malicdem came three close matches:
- Last 16: 4:2 against Ganzorig Lkhagvasüren (90.62 to 90.45)
- Quarter-final: 4:3 against Haruki Muramatsu (84.93 to 84.29)
- Semi-final: 5:4 against Ryuta Arihara – Arihara lost despite a 91.71 average, Ilagan played 84.00
Three Filipinos reached the semi-finals with Toylo, Ilagan and AbiAbi; Arihara was the only Japanese player. In the quarter-finals, five of the eight players came from the Philippines.
The highlights: Muramatsu's Big Fish, Kumar's 101.90
180s: The 40 players covered by the statistics threw 90 maximums between them. Christian De Los Reyes (8) and Paolo Nebrida (7) led the way, both going out in the quarter-finals. Ilagan threw 6, Toylo 5.
| Player | Checkout | Eliminated in |
|---|---|---|
| Haruki Muramatsu | 170 | Quarter-final |
| Batgerel Dashkhüü | 164 | Last 16 |
| Lourence Ilagan | 158 | Final |
| Yoshihisa Baba | 150 | Last 32 |
| Man Lok Leung | 149 | Last 32 |
| Ganzorig Lkhagvasüren | 148 | Last 16 |
| Lok Yin Lee | 147 | Last 32 |
| Alexis Toylo | 142 | Winner |
| Pin Feng Yeh | 140 | Last 16 |
Haruki Muramatsu checked out the Big Fish – the only 170 finish of the tournament. The Japanese player went out 3:4 to Ilagan in the quarter-finals.
| Player | Record | Average | Best match average | Eliminated in |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nitin Kumar | 3:1 | 90.58 | 101.90 | Last 16 |
| Man Lok Leung | 2:1 | 89.50 | 92.61 | Last 32 |
| Rolly Gabiana | 2:1 | 88.69 | 94.02 | Last 32 |
| Ryuta Arihara | 5:1 | 87.95 | 91.71 | Semi-final |
| Haruki Muramatsu | 4:1 | 87.70 | 91.57 | Quarter-final |
| Jenn Ming Tan | 1:1 | 87.54 | 88.04 | Last 64 |
| Paolo Nebrida | 4:1 | 87.15 | 89.92 | Quarter-final |
| Lourence Ilagan | 6:1 | 85.11 | 95.18 | Final |
Nitin Kumar posted 101.90 in his 4:0 against Mönkh-Orgil Jargalsaikhan in the last 32, the only match average above 100 of the tournament – in the last 16 he was beaten 1:4 by Arihara (91.69).
- Fastest legs: Four players won a leg in 11 darts – Alexis Toylo, Ryuta Arihara, Alain AbiAbi and Batgerel Dashkhüü.
- No nine-darter is recorded.
Conclusion
Toylo took the Asian Tour 28 title with a 7:0 record, even though his tournament average trailed those of Ilagan and Arihara. The players with the highest averages – Kumar, Leung, Gabiana – were all out by the last 16 at the latest. The final, with two averages below 76, was the weakest match from the quarter-finals onwards.