Van Duijvenbode and Van Gerwen knocked out of the World Championship

Wim Blokpoel - The first of january 2021. Quarter-Finals day for the PDC World Darts Championship! And it included two Dutch players. In the afternoon we saw Dirk ‘Aubergenius’ van Duijvenbode facing two time World Champion Gary ‘The Flying Scotsman’ Anderson. Dirk started the match very solid. He won the set 3-1 in legs. Anderson took the second set with the same scoreline: 3-1 in legs. After the second break, Gary started his scoring power. And how! He won back to back sets 3-0 in legs and suddenly Anderson was 3-1 in front. Dirk couldn’t answer, and Anderson won the fifth set: 4-1. Anderson was 1 set away, however Dirk seemed to start fighting back with a 109-finish. Unfortunately, Dirk still lost the set in a last leg and it was a very big 1-5 defeat for the World Grand Prix Finalist, however with reaching the wuarters it was a good World Championship for Dirk van Duijvenbode.

Stats:

Dirk van Duijvenbode (94.29) 1-5 Gary Anderson (101.07)

Sets: 3-1, 1-3, 0-3, 0-3, 1-3, 2-3

We had only 1 Dutch player left in the tournament now. It was World Number One ‘Mighty Mike’ Michael van Gerwen. He played Dave ‘Chizzy’ Chisnall, against who he had a 26-1 record on tv tournaments. Dave Chisnall started the match incredibly. He won the first set in which he threw 2 12-darters and an 11-darter. The second set went to Chisnall as well. Van Gerwen really had to fight back after the second break. It looked good after he hit a 150-finish in set threem however Chisnall still won this set 3-2 and was 3-0 up in sets against the player he didn’t beat on tv since 2013! In set 4, Chisnall hit two more 11-darters, was throwing well over a 100 and well, what could MVG do against this? It was 4-0 for Chisnall, was there any way MVG could come back in this match? The answer is no: Dave Chisnall won set 5, and writes history: he beats Michael van Gerwen 5-0 in the quarter-finals of the world championship, reaches the semi-finals of the worlds for the first time, and has a very big chance to finally win his first major. As good as this day was for Dave Chisnall, as bad was it for Dutch Darts. All Dutch players are out of the PDC World Darts Championship 2021 and the last 2 in it lost 10 sets in a row! This year can only get better for Dutch Darts, and I’m sure it will!

Stats:

Michael van Gerwen (98,29) 0-5 Dave Chisnall (107.34)

Sets: 1-3, 2-3, 2-3, 1-3, 0-3