Damon Heta

Damon Heta
Damon Heta
	Heta in 2022
Personal information
Nickname	"The Heat"
Born	10 August 1987 (age 37); Perth, Western Australia
Home town	Leominster, England
Darts information
Playing darts since	2007
Darts	23 Gram Harrows Signature
Laterality	Right-handed
Walk-on music	Various
Organisation (see split in darts)
PDC	2008– ; (Tour Card: 2020-)
Current world ranking	9 (1 September 2024)
PDC premier events – best performances
World Ch'ship	Last 16: 2024
World Matchplay	Quarter Final: 2023
World Grand Prix	Last 32: 2021, 2022, 2023
UK Open	Semi Final: 2024
Grand Slam	Quarter Final: 2020, 2023
European Ch'ship	Last 16: 2021
PC Finals	Quarter Final: 2020, 2023
Masters	Quarter Final: 2024
World Series Finals	Last 16: 2018, 2019, 2020, 2022
Other tournament wins
PDC World Cup of Darts (team event)	2022
PDC Home Tour 3	2020
Australian Darts Open	2019
Australian Masters	2018, 2019
Pacific Masters	2011
Sydney Masters Qualifier	2014
West Coast Classic	2015
DPA Australian Open	2016
DPA Australian Singles	2014
DPA Pro Tour (Barooga)	2019 (x2)
DPA Pro Tour (Barrack Heights)	2019 (x2)
DPA Pro Tour (Brisbane)	2019
DPA Pro Tour (Canberra)	2019
DPA Pro Tour (Melbourne)	2019 (x2)
Gibraltar Darts Trophy	2022
Players Championship (Barnsley)	2022 (x2)
Players Championship (Hildesheim)	2023
Players Championship (Leicester)	2023, 2024
Players Championship (Milton Keynes)	2024
Players Championship (Niedernhausen)	2020
Brisbane Darts Masters	2019

Damon Heta (born 10 August 1987) is an Australian professional darts player who plays in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events. He won the 2019 Brisbane Darts Masters and also, in pairs with Simon Whitlock, the World Cup of Darts in 2022. His nickname is "The Heat", a play on letters within his surname.

Career

A roofer by trade, Heta has mainly played on the Dartplayers Australia (DPA) Tour. His first big exposure was qualifying for the 2014 Sydney Darts Masters, where he was whitewashed 6–0 in the first round by Dave Chisnall. Heta qualified for the 2016 Auckland Darts Masters where he lost in the first round to Michael van Gerwen 6–3.

He qualified for the 2018 Melbourne Darts Masters, where he defeated his good friend Kyle Anderson 6–5 in the first round, before losing 10–7 to Gary Anderson in the quarter-finals. Gary would then defeat Heta 6–5 in the first round of the 2018 Brisbane Darts Masters a week later.

Amongst his titles achieved Down Under are the 2011 Pacific Masters, the 2014 DPA Australian Singles, the 2015 West Coast Classic, and the 2016 DPA Australian Open.

On 3 August 2019, Damon won the first ever DFA Australian Open Darts, beating top BDO players such as Jim Williams 8–1 in the semi-final and former World Champion Scott Mitchell 10–9 in the final to take the $15,000 first prize.

Heta qualified for all three PDC World Series events in Australia and New Zealand in 2019.

At the 2019 Brisbane Darts Masters Heta reached his first PDC final by beating former major winners James Wade, Gary Anderson and Simon Whitlock, before defeating former World Champion Rob Cross 8–7 in the final to win his first World Series title. Damon become the first ever non-tour cardholder to win a world series event and the first to win a world series event on home soil. He became the first non-tour cardholder to win a PDC televised event since Scott Waites in 2010.

Heta beat James Wade once again in the first round of the 2019 Melbourne Darts Masters, but lost 8–3 to Rob Cross in the quarter-finals. He lost 6–1 to Peter Wright in the first round of the 2019 New Zealand Darts Masters.

On 19 January 2020, Heta won a two-year PDC Tour Card by finishing fourth on the UK Q School Order of Merit. He played on the ProTour in 2020 and 2021. He won his first PDC ranking event at the PDC Autumn Series in Niedernhausen, beating Joe Cullen 8–4 in the final.^[3]

Heta, in conjunction with Simon Whitlock, beat Wales in the 2022 PDC World Cup of Darts on 19 June 2022 to claim the title for Australia for the first time since Whitlock and Paul Nicholson lost in the grand final in 2012 to England.^[4]

Heta won the 2022 Gibraltar Darts Trophy on the PDC European Tour in October 2022, where along the way, he defeated Michael van Gerwen in the semi-final and Peter Wright in the final.^[5]

At the 2023 Grand Slam of Darts, Heta qualified for the knockout rounds by finishing second in Group H with 5–4 wins over Ricardo Pietreczko and Beau Greaves respectively and a 5–2 loss to Nathan Aspinall. In the second round, Heta shocked Michael van Gerwen with a 10–7 victory.^[6] In the third round Heta was knocked out by Rob Cross 6–16.^[7]

At the 2024 UK Open, Heta reached the semi-finals for the first time. Heta achieved wins over Simon Whitlock 10–8 and Nathan Aspinall 10–9, before defeating Gian van Veen and Luke Littler both 10–8.^[8] Heta was drawn to play Dimitri Van den Bergh in the semi-finals, who he lost to 11–6.^[9]

World Championship results

PDC

2020: Second round (lost to Glen Durrant 0–3)
2021: First round (lost to Danny Baggish 2–3)
2022: Third round (lost to Peter Wright 2–4)
2023: Third round (lost to Joe Cullen 0–4)
2024: Fourth round (lost to Scott Williams 1–4)

Career finals

PDC world series finals: 3 (1 title, 2 runners-up)

Legend
World Series of Darts (1–2)

Outcome	No.	Year	Championship	Opponent in the final	Score^{[N 1]}
Winner	1.	2019	Brisbane Darts Masters	Rob Cross	8–7 (l)
Runner-up	1.	2023	New South Wales Darts Masters	Rob Cross	1–8 (l)
Runner-up	2.	2024	New Zealand Darts Masters	Luke Humphries	2–8 (l)

PDC team finals: 1 (1 title)

Outcome	No.	Year	Championship	Country	Teammate	Opponents in the final	Score^{[N 1]}
Winner	1.	2022	World Cup of Darts	Australia	Simon Whitlock	Wales – Gerwyn Price and Jonny Clayton	3–1 (m)

^ ^a ^b (l) = score in legs, (s) = score in sets, (m) = score in matches.

Performance timeline

PDC

Tournament	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023	2024
PDC World Championship	DNQ		2R	1R	3R	3R	4R
UK Open	DNP		1R	3R	QF	4R	SF
World Matchplay	DNP		DNQ	1R	1R	QF	1R
World Grand Prix	DNP		DNQ	1R	1R	1R
European Championship	DNP		DNQ	2R	1R	1R
Grand Slam of Darts	DNP		QF	DNQ	RR	QF
Players Championship Finals	DNP		QF	3R	1R	QF
Non-ranked televised events
Masters	DNP		Did not qualify			1R	QF
PDC World Cup of Darts	DNP		QF	QF	W	QF	2R
World Series of Darts Finals	2R	2R	2R	DNQ	2R	1R
Career statistics
Year-end ranking	-	-	56	29	16	11

PDC European Tour

Season	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13
2020	BDC 2R	GDC DNQ	EDG 1R	IDO DNQ
2021	HDT 3R	GDT 3R
2022	IDO 3R	GDC 2R	GDG SF	ADO 2R	EDO 2R	CDO 2R	EDG SF	DDC 3R	EDM QF	HDT 2R	GDO 3R	BDO 2R	GDT W
2023	BSD 3R	EDO QF	IDO QF	GDG SF	ADO 3R	DDC SF	BDO 3R	CDO SF	EDG SF	EDM 2R	GDO 2R	HDT QF	GDC QF
2024	BDO 3R	GDG 2R	IDO 3R	EDG QF	ADO 2R	BSD 3R	DDC 2R	EDO SF	GDC	FDT	HDT	SDT	CDO

PDC Players Championships

Season	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30
2020	BAR 2R	BAR 1R	WIG 1R	WIG 1R	WIG 3R	WIG 1R	BAR 1R	BAR 2R	MIL DNP	MIL DNP	MIL DNP	MIL DNP	MIL DNP	NIE 1R	NIE W	NIE QF	NIE 3R	NIE 1R	COV QF	COV 3R	COV F	COV QF	COV 1R
2021	BOL 4R	BOL 2R	BOL 2R	BOL F	MIL 4R	MIL 2R	MIL 3R	MIL 4R	NIE 3R	NIE 1R	NIE QF	NIE 3R	MIL 1R	MIL 3R	MIL 4R	MIL 1R	COV 4R	COV 3R	COV 1R	COV 1R	BAR F	BAR 4R	BAR 1R	BAR 1R	BAR 1R	BAR 2R	BAR QF	BAR 1R	BAR SF	BAR 4R
2022	BAR 2R	BAR SF	WIG F	WIG 1R	BAR W	BAR 3R	NIE 4R	NIE 4R	BAR 2R	BAR SF	BAR 1R	BAR SF	BAR 3R	WIG SF	WIG QF	NIE 4R	NIE 4R	BAR 3R	BAR 3R	BAR 4R	BAR SF	BAR DNP	BAR DNP	BAR DNP	BAR SF	BAR W	BAR 1R	BAR SF	BAR 4R	BAR 3R
2023	BAR 3R	BAR 1R	BAR 1R	BAR 3R	BAR 2R	BAR 1R	HIL 3R	HIL 3R	WIG 2R	WIG QF	LEI 3R	LEI SF	HIL SF	HIL W	LEI 4R	LEI W	HIL 2R	HIL 2R	BAR 2R	BAR 3R	BAR 1R	BAR SF	BAR 3R	BAR QF	BAR 1R	BAR 2R	BAR 3R	BAR F	BAR SF	BAR SF
2024	WIG 1R	WIG 2R	LEI 4R	LEI W	HIL 3R	HIL 4R	LEI 4R	LEI 2R	HIL 3R	HIL 1R	HIL 4R	HIL 2R	MIL 1R	MIL QF	MIL SF	MIL 3R	MIL 2R	MIL	MIL	WIG	WIG	MIL	MIL	WIG	WIG	WIG	WIG	WIG	LEI	LEI

Performance Table Legend
W	Won the tournament	F	Finalist	SF	Semifinalist	QF	Quarterfinalist	#R RR Prel.	Lost in # round Round-robin Preliminary round	DQ	Disqualified
DNQ	Did not qualify	DNP	Did not participate	WD	Withdrew	NH	Tournament not held	#R RR Prel.	Lost in # round Round-robin Preliminary round	NYF	Not yet founded