MVG through to last 16, Wattimena goes out

Wim Blokpoel - After everyone enjoyed their christmas dinner, the 2021 PDC World Darts Championship resumed this afternoon. We had 2 Dutch players today. In the final match of the afternoon former World Grand Prix quarter-finalist Jermaine Wattimena took on Belgium’s number one Dimitri van den Bergh. Jermaine has never reached the last 16 of the PDC World Championship before, so he could win a very important match today. The first leg started good for Jermaine, but after a bad dart he had 3 left. He then missed 6 darts to finish the leg, and lost it eventually. After this, The Machine Gun Wattimena seemed to get negative thoughts already and soon he lost the first set. He then lost another set and the headshaking was getting serious now. It even became 3-0 for Van den Bergh and Jermaine didn’t seem to have any faith anymore. Despite hitting a Double 8 while blocking the double with his first two darts, Wattimena eventually lost 0-4 in sets. For Dutch Darts this was a disappointing start of the third round.

The final match of the evening session included a Dutchman as well as World Number One Michael van Gerwen took on ‘Rapid’ Ricky Evans in the third round, and rapid it was. MVG quickly came 1-0 up. After that Mighty Mike had a brilliant second set including some shocking good visits at the treble 19. Evans fought back strong but saw himself 2-0 down in the second break. Michael van Gerwen seemed totally back in form, as it became 3-0 and eventually 4-0. 3 of the sets ended 3-2 in legs, and Ricky Evans averaged above 100 but Michael van Gerwen was incredible and with that became the first Dutch player trough to the last 16 of the 2021 PDC World Darts Championship. Tomorrow we have 2 more Dutch players in the third round: Dirk van Duijvenbode and Vincent van der Voort.