Finally first ranking title for Van Gerwen in 2021

Wim Blokpoel - This week the 2021 Pro Tour was ended with the last 3 Players Championships. 

In Players Championship 28 we had 4 Dutchmen in the last 32. Very talented Kevin Doets averaged 97 in a 6-1 win against Brett Claydon! Danny Noppert also won his third round: an average of 103,5 was just enough to edge out Callan Rydz 6-5! An even better performance came from Michael van Gerwen: 106,9 saw him destroy Eddie Lovely 6-1. Finally, Dirk van Duijvenbode had a comfortable 6-3 win over Adam Hunt. 

Still 4 Dutchmen, into round 4. However, Doets lost 4-6 to José de Sousa and Noppert lost 2-6 to Dave Chisnall. Van Duijvenbode also lost 2-6, to Ryan Searle. MVG was the only Dutchman in the quarter-finals as he averaged 100,7 in a 6-3 win over Joe Cullen. In this quarter-final MVG lost 2-6 to Chisnall himself.

Wednesday PC29 was played. This time 3 Dutchmen made their board final. Michael van Gerwen won his last 32 game again, this time 6-4 against Andy Boulton with an average of 104,8. Raymond van Barneveld surprisingly lost 4-6 to Jason Heaver. Jelle Klaasen however, managed to get through to round 4! He edged our Ross Smith 6-5.

In the last 16 MVG also won 6-5, against Brendan Dolan. Klaasen played Michael Smith, and he caused an upset as he beat the Bullyboy 6-2 with an average of 102,6! The former Lakeside world champion did lose his quarter-final though, 0-6 against Australian Damon Heta. But Van Gerwen did win: a 107,2 average for a 6-2 win against Polish Krzysztof Ratajski! 

In the semi-finals Van Gerwen did manage to beat Heta, 7-3. In the final he played Nathan Aspinall, another Premier League player who hasn’t won a title yet this year! Both men averaged over 102, but it was Van Gerwen who won it 8-5! Finally a first title of the year for MVG, after 11 months! A very impressive day from him!

In Players Championship 30 there even were 5 Dutchmen in round 3! Van Barneveld got 4-0 and 5-1 up against Simon Whitlock, but as he missed 10 (!!!!!) matchdarts, he still lost 5-6… Maik Kuivenhoven also lost, 2-6 to Darius Labanauskas. However, Dirk van Duijvenbode won by the same scoreline against the American Danny Baggish to go into round 4. ‘The Freeze’ Danny Noppert averaged almost 108 in a 6-3 win over Scottish Jim McEwan!! Finally MVG also made his third 4th round in a row, as he best Daryl Gurney 6-4 with a 104 average, despite Gurney averaging almost 108 himself.

In round 4 Van Duijvenbode also lost to Labanauskas, 5-6. Noppert did win a last leg decider, against German Martin Schindler, once again while averaging well over a ton! Van Gerwen once again beat Heta, 6-4 this time. In the quarter-finals Noppert still improved as he averaged 108,5 this time, although it wasn’t even enough! He lost 3-6 to Cullen who averaged almost 105 himself. Van Gerwen did win in his third quarter-final in a row, he beat Matthew Edgar 6-3. In the semi-final MVG also lost to Cullen, 4-7 when Cullen averaged over 111! Still a very decent week for Dutch Darts!