Danny Jansen wins Players Championship 9

Wim Blokpoel - Yesterday the 9th PDC Players Championship of 2022 was played. And it had a very surprising but great winner…

In round 1 Holten’s Danny Jansen averaged 95 in a 6-2 win over Radek Szaganski. It was another 95 average for Jansen in round 2, to edge out William O’Connor 6-5 while O’Connor averaged over a ton! In the last 32, Jansen played World Champion Peter Wright. Jansen got 4-1 up but Wright came back to 5-5. In leg 11, Wright missed multiple matchdsrtd as Jansen caused an upset and beat the World Number One 6-5! In the last 16, Jansen faced another top 16 player in Krzysztof Ratajski. Again it was 5-5 and again Jansen survived matchdarts, but again he won 6-5!! Jansen averaged 101,8 and Ratajski 105,5!! Into the quarter-finals, where Jansen played Chris Dobey. From 3-4 down Jansen won 3 legs in a row to win it 6-4 and go into the semi-finals! In his first PDC semi-final, Jansen played Dave Chisnall. Jansen took an enormous 5-1 lead, but then Chizzy won 5 legs in a row for 5-6. On 6-6 however, it was Jansen who hit an enormous 12-darter to win 7-6 and make the final of Players Chanpionship 9!! In this final he surprisingly faced Andrew Gilding! It was a close game, until 7-6 for Jansen. Here Jansen finished the game in style again with a 13-darter to win 8-6 and win Players Championship 9!! 2,5 months after winning his tourcard, 19-year-old Danny Jansen has won his first PDC senior title. What. An. Achievement.

UK Open Champion Danny Noppert started his day with an easy 6-1 win over Gordon Mathers. It was an all Dutch second round on the stream between Noppert and Jeffrey de Zwaan. Noppert was 4-0 up, but De Zwaan came back all the way to 5-5. In the last leg. Noppert took out 72 to win the game 6-5. In his board final Noppert played Ryan Searle and it was an average of 102,7 for The Freeze to beat Searle 6-3! In the last 16 an average below 90 was enough for Noppert to beat Gary Anderson 6-4! Into the quarter-finals, Noppert played Dutch number one Michael van Gerwen on the stream! Noppert took a 3-0 and 5-1 leas and there was no way back for MVG, as Noppert eventually won it 6-2 with an average of 103,3 while Van Gerwen averaged 101,1 himself! In the semi-finals the man from Joure played Gilding. Unfortunately it was a 4-7 defeat for Noppert, but a great day for him as well.

Before his defeat, Michael van Gerwen had some great wins. In round 1 he averaged 101,8 in a 6-4 win over fellow Dutchman Jimmy Hendriks, and in the last 64 an amazing average of 105,6 saw him beat World Youth Champion Ted Evetts 6-4, with Evetts averaging 101,9 himself! In round 3 Van Gerwen averaged almost a ton but only edged out Belgian Mike de Decker 6-5, and in the last 16 it was another ton plus average to beat Jonny Clayton on stream 6-4, with Clayton averaging 104,8 himself!

Dutch darting legend Raymond van Barneveld started against former UK Open Champion Nathan Aspinall. Barney averaged 99 and Aspinall a ton but it was Barney who won it 6-4 to stay undefeated against Aspinall! In round 2 it was an easy 6-1 win over Joe Murnan for RVB. In the last 32 he beat Scotsman Andy Boulton 6-2, but in the last 16 it was a defeat against José de Sousa again, as he lost 4-6 to the Portugese who averaged 100,9.

Before his defeat, Jeffrey de Zwaan did beat Bradley Brooks 6-3. Urk’s Geert Nentjes averaged 97,7 to edge out Luke Woodhouse 6-5 in round 1 despite Woodhouse averaging 105,5! In the last 64, Nentjes lost 3-6 to number one seed Gerwyn Price. Ron Meulenkamp and Kevin Doets played each other in round 1, and it was Doets who won it 6-1. Doets then played on stream but lost 5-6 to Belgian Kim Huybrechts. Maik Kuivenhoven beat in form Martin Lukeman 6-3 in the last 128, but then lost 2-6 to De Decker in round 2. Berry van Peer averaged a ton in a great 6-4 win over Ross Montgomery, but then lost in round 2 as well, 2-6 to Clayton. Vincent van der Voort was an unseeded player in a Players Championship for the first time in years, but he did beat fellow Dutchman Niels Zonneveld 6-4 in round 1. In the last 64 VVDV averaged 100,8 but still lost 2-6 to De Sousa who averaged 104,9. Last Dutch win is for Martijn Kleermaker, who beat Steve Haggerty 6-4 but then lost 3-6 to Kevin Burness.

Jermaine Wattimena played on stream in round 1, but lost 4-6 to Matt Campbell. Dirk van Duijvenbode had a surprising first round defeat, 4-6 to young Josh Rock. Other first round Dutch defeats came from: Luc Peters (3-6 against Chisnall), Jules van Dongen (2-6 against Callan Rydz) and Damian Mol (5-6 against Devon Petersen).