First final in 2021 for Van Gerwen at PC14

Wim Blokpoel - It cost him half the year, but today World Number Three and Dutch Number One Michael van Gerwen finally managed to make his first final in a PDC event in 2021. 

At Players Championship 14 Van Gerwen started with a 6-0 demolishment over Shaun Fisher. He then averaged a ridiculous 106,1 to beat Austrian Rusty-Jake Rodriguez 6-3. In the last 32 MVG averaged 101,6 in another 6-3 win over Luke Humphries. Into round 4 and it was Chris Dobey who averaged 101,6 this time. It was nor enough from the Englishman though as MVG beat him 6-3 as well despite a lower average. Mighty Mike then faced a surprising quarter-finalist in Super Ted Evetts. MVG took a 5-1 leas, before Evetts came back all the way to 5-4, where Van Gerwen ended it in a 6-4 win. Into the semi-finals for the second day in a row, and where MVG lost 2-7 to Joe Cullen yesterday, today MVG won 7-2 in fact against Gary Anderson. Van Gerwen had another average over 106 in that one! In the final MVG played Portugese José de Sousa. De Sousa took the lead at 4-3, and didn’t give it away. MVG saved himself with a 170-finish halfway the match, survived 2 matchdarts at 5-7, but eventually still lost 6-8 to the Portugese darting hero. Still the first final of the year, but MVG will be a bit disappointed that he’s still not won a title this year.

Unfortunately MVG was the only Dutch player today who made the last 16. Dirk ‘Aubergenius’ van Duijvenbode started the day on stream. He played former World Champion Stephen Bunting in an absolute thriller. DVD survived 2 matchdsrts at 5-5 and went on to beat Bunting 6-5 with an average of 102,8! In round 2 Van Duijvenbode’s average dropped 23 points to 79,8 but he still beat Rowby-John Rodriguez 6-2. In his board final Van Duijvenbode got edged out 5-6 by Dobey. 

MVG’s best mate Vincent van der Voort also started well. The Dutch Destroyer averaged 101,1 in the last 128 but still only managed to win 6-5 to Peter Jacques. In round 2 VVDV beat Scottish William Borland 6-4. Round 3 was the end for the man from Purmerend as well though, as Van der Voort lost 4-6 to Darren Webster, who in fact is half his size! 

6 more Dutch players managed to win a game. 5 time World Champion Raymond van Barneveld got into a hell of a game in round 1. He played Jim McEwan from Scotland, who in the first leg of the match already hit a 9-darter, despite not having son any PDC ranking game in his entire career. This seemed to end as Barney got 2-5 down, but then RVB came back at 4-5. McEwan then missed loads of doubles, and somehow RVB escaped with a 6-5 win! Van Barneveld a round later however, got demolished by Belgian Dimitri van den Bergh as RVB lost 1-6 while DVDB averaged 106. Yesterday’s 9-dart hero Niels Zonneveld started the day with a narrow 6-5 victory against Jason Lowe, before losing 2-6 simply to Steve West. Former World Champion Jelle Klaasen got another important win, he beat Bradley Brooks 6-5 in round 1. Klaasen then lost heavily 1-6 to Dave Chisnall. Derk Telnekes from Deventer had a comfortable 6-3 win over a completely out of form Glen Durrant, before Telnekes lost 4-6 to Evetts in the last 64. Ron the Bomb Meulenkamp beat Matt Jackson 6-2 in round 1, but lost 4-6 to Damon Heta in round 2 despite averaging almost a ton. Final win today came from Urk’s Geert ‘The Spear’ Nentjes! Nentjes demolished Kirk Shepherd 6-0 in round 1 and hit a 9-darter to do so! Second Dutch 9-darter in 2 days, well done guys, and 4th in Nentjes’ career making him the youngest player to do that.

Jermaine Wattimena started today on stream but the man from Westervoort couldn’t find anything and lost 3-6 to Scottish Andy Boulton. Jeffrey de Zwaan had anorher tough first round draw, as JDZ lost 4-6 to Anderson in round 1. 8 more Dutch round 1 defeats came from: Kevin Doets (3-6 against William O’Connor), Berry van Peer (4-6 against Eddie Lovely), Martijn Kleermaker (3-6 against Steve Beaton), Maik Kuivenhoven (1-6 against Rusty-Jake Rodriguez), Lorenzo Pronk (1-6 against Krzysztof Ratajski), Ryan de Vreede (1-6 against Jeff Smith), Danny Noppert (4-6 against Andrew Gilding) and Luc Peters (1-6 against Martin Lukeman).