Florian Hempel was very irritated.
When the 32-year-old from Cologne entered the world's largest darts stage in London at the World Cup, the world association PDC surprised him with the wrong entrance music.
Instead of “Kölsche Jung” by Brings, “Rocket Man” by Elton John boomed out of the speakers.
“The walk-on song confused me.
I figured I'd run up there and see what happens.
Rocket Man is a great song, but that wasn't my choice.
At least it's nice that the audience could sing along," said Hempel later in an interview with DAZN.
The PDC doesn't like songs without English lyrics because the fans in the arena can't sing along.
Hempel won his hard-fought opening match against Keegan Brown on Friday evening 3-2 sets.
Hempel needed six match darts to decide the game.
As a reward, a second round duel with world number five Luke Humphries (England) is now waiting.
“It means preparing well, there are a lot of days off.
In any case, I have to be a bit more consistent in scoring," said Hempel, whose nickname is "Kölsche Jung" to match the song he actually chose.
The former handball player had already surprised at the World Cup in Alexandra Palace last year.
Then Hempel threw the favorite Dimitri Van den Bergh out of the tournament, the Belgian was also seeded in fifth place at the time.
The 32-year-old is now part of a German trio in the second round: Gabriel Clemens and Martin Schindler had a bye at the start.