SINGAPORE – They made the international darts community sit up and take notice over the past two days, knocking out higher-ranked opponents on their way to the quarter-finals.

Alas, the fairytale run of Singapore duo Paul Lim and Harith Lim in the Professional Darts Corporatation (PDC) World Cup of Darts ended on Sunday night (Singapore time) after they lost 1-2 to eighth seeds Belgium.

Paul, the oldest contestant in Frankfurt at 63, fell 1-4 to world no. 12 Kim Huybrechts in the opening singles match, before Harith levelled the scores at 1-1 by beating world no. 44 Ronny 4-2 in his singles clash. 

However, the Huybrechts brothers held their nerve in the deciding doubles game to win 4-2 and dash Singapore’s hopes of a semi-final berth.

Still, the Singaporean pair remained upbeat despite their elimination, having come into the tournament without a seeding and PDC ranking. 

“There’s always the saying of ‘should have’ or ‘could have’, but there is no regret for us,” Paul told TODAY over the phone from Germany after their loss. 

“Every shot we did, we shot with our heart… that’s what darts is about, if you do it with your heart in every shot, even if you miss, it doesn't matter.

“It was a good run and we have gained a lot of fans and support from our performances, and what we did for Singapore, so I am really glad.”

Harith, who has known his partner for 31 years and has represented Singapore in the annual tournament with Paul since 2014, added: “We wanted to go as far as we could and I think we did our best.”

That they did, having pulled off one of the greatest ever upsets in the tournament’s history on Friday when they beat top seeds Scotland in the opening round. Scotland were represented by world no. 2 Gary Anderson and no. 3 Peter Wright, but crashed to a 2-5 loss in the best-of-nine-legs round against the unseeded Singaporeans.

Paul and Harith then beat Spain’s Cristo Reyes and Antonio Alcinas, ranked 30th and 127th respectively, 2-1 in the second round yesterday to make the quarter-finals, marking the first time Singapore has ever advanced to this stage. 

“We came together pretty well,” Paul said. “I’ve always believed in (the importance of) chemistry and we’ve got a good chemistry.”

Singapore’s quarter-final achievement matched previous bests by Asian countries – Japan and Hong Kong also reached the same stage in 2013 and 2015 respectively – and Paul believes it shows that the region can excel in darts as well.

“People are going to watch our performance, and they will be Singaporeans, they will be Asians, and (I hope) it sparks a kind of recognition that actually, we aren't that bad,” he said.

“It’s just a matter of not being as fine-tuned as the others, who play day in and day out.” 

Paul, who is based in Hong Kong as a consultant for Dartslive Asia, will join forces with Singapore-based Harith later this month in France, where they will compete in a doubles tournament.