Kiwi darts ace Cody Harris will head into the upcoming NZ Masters full of confidence, after recording his best-ever finish in a Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) ranking event.
The Auckland thrower continued his recent run of form by reaching the semi-finals of the Players Championship 22 final in Hildesheim, Germany.
This was just Harris' second time competing in a Players Championship event in 2019, after suffering a first-round defeat the previous day.
He competed in a few Players Championship events in 2018, with his best result being a round of 32 berth.
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Harris mainly competes in the second-tier Challenge Tour circuit, as he fights to earn a full tour card that would enable him to regularly compete in Players Championship events.
The Players Championship is usually reserved for the 128 PDC tour-card holders, but Harris earned the call-up, after a several top-line players pulled out of the Hildesheim events to travel to Australia for the Brisbane Masters, which starts on Friday.
While Harris was a first-round loser to former world championship quarter-finalist Darren Webster in Sunday's Players Championship 21, he didn't disappoint with his second opportunity.
Harris gained valuable top-level match practice for the forthcoming World Series of Darts event in Hamilton on August 23-24, beating Belgium number two Kim Huybrechts and Welsh number two Jonny Clayton, before overcoming Dutch youngster Wessel Nijman (all 6-5) to reach the last 16.
There, he turned on the style to defeat Finland's Marko Kantele 6-1 and then overcame Players Championship 21 winner Krzysztof Ratajski of Poland 6-4 in the quarter-finals.
His dream run came to an end against eventual winner Brendan Dolan of Northern Ireland, 7-3, but collected prisemony worth £3,000 (NZ$5,586), moving up to 130th on the PDC Order of Merit in the process.
The run completes a decent run of form for the 33-year-old, who helped New Zealand - along with Haupai Puha - to the World Cup of Darts quarter-finals, while he was triumphant in a Challenge Tour event last month, which lifted him to seventh in the Order of Merit.
Harris will now head back home to Auckland to prepare for the NZ Darts Masters, where he will line up against the likes of world champion Michael van Gerwen and recent world matchplay winner Rob Cross.
Newshub.
