{"id":1289,"date":"2020-02-08T20:16:06","date_gmt":"2020-02-08T20:16:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/\/www.pdc2.fw-web.space\/?p=1289"},"modified":"2024-11-01T21:12:48","modified_gmt":"2024-11-01T21:12:48","slug":"anderson-claims-first-ranking-title-of-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pdc2.fw-web.space\/news\/anderson-claims-first-ranking-title-of-2020\/","title":{"rendered":"Anderson claims first ranking title of 2020"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gary Anderson claimed the first PDC ranking title of 2020 with victory at Players Championship One in Barnsley on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Anderson defeated Canada’s Jeff Smith 8-4 in the final to get his 2020 campaign off to a perfect start following an injury-ravaged 2019.<\/p>\n

The two-time World Champion was in fine form all day, hitting four ton-plus averages, including a 107.5 against Christian Bunse in the first round.<\/p>\n

After a win over Simon Whitlock, a 104.4 average saw Anderson defeat rival Gerwyn Price for the second time in a week, which he followed up with a 106.1 to overcome Rob Cross and reach the quarter-finals.<\/p>\n

There, the Scottish World Cup winner beat Joe Cullen 6-2 before averaging 102.2 to claim a 7-3 win over Adrian Lewis in the semi-finals.<\/p>\n

The final saw Anderson race into a 6-2 lead before Smith, who was competing in his first Players Championship event since 2013, fought back to trail 6-4.<\/p>\n

However, two-time World Champion Anderson was not to be denied and he went on to pick up his first PDC ranking title since the 2018 World Matchplay.<\/p>\n

“It’s been a while since I won something, but I’ve got the hunger back,” Anderson revealed.<\/p>\n

“I want to get back to how I was throwing before [injury], I don’t mind if I win or lose, but as long as I throw them how I used to then I’ll be alright.<\/p>\n

“I still have work to do, but it’s not a bad start.”<\/p>\n

The first of 30 Players Championship events in 2020 saw two nine-dart finishes hit, both in the first round, by Northern Ireland’s Mickey Mansell and Dutchman Mike van Duivenbode.<\/p>\n

The day was also a significant one for another Dutch youngster, Maik Kuivenhoven, who reached his first PDC ranking quarter-final.<\/p>\n

Players Championship One
\nSaturday February 8
\nLast 16
\nBrendan Dolan 6-5 Ross Smith
\nMaik Kuivenhoven 6-3 Steve Brown
\nPeter Wright 6-3 Conan Whitehead
\nJeff Smith 6-5 Nathan Aspinall
\nAdrian Lewis 6-1 Darren Webster
\nSteve Beaton 6-1 Mickey Mansell
\nGary Anderson 6-2 Rob Cross
\nJoe Cullen 6-1 Nick Kenny<\/p>\n

Quarter-Finals
\nBrendan Dolan 6-3 Maik Kuivenhoven
\nJeff Smith 6-5 Peter Wright
\nAdrian Lewis 6-3 Steve Beaton
\nGary Anderson 6-2 Joe Cullen<\/p>\n

Semi-Finals
\nJeff Smith 7-2 Brendan Dolan
\nGary Anderson 7-3 Adrian Lewis<\/p>\n

Final
\nGary Anderson 8-4 Jeff Smith<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gary Anderson claimed the first PDC ranking title of 2020 with victory at Players Championship One in Barnsley on Saturday.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":1287,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[943,124],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1289","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-results"],"lang":"en","translations":{"en":1289,"de":1286},"pll_sync_post":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pdc2.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1289"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pdc2.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pdc2.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pdc2.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pdc2.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1289"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pdc2.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1289\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1290,"href":"https:\/\/pdc2.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1289\/revisions\/1290"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pdc2.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pdc2.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pdc2.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pdc2.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}