Emotional Michael van Gerwen returned to winning ways on the big stage with a dramatic 11-10 defeat of Mervyn King as he claimed the Ladbrokes Players Championship Finals title for a sixth time on Sunday night.<\/p>\n
World number one Van Gerwen has endured over eight months without a televised title since winning the UK Open in March, but completed a brilliant weekend in Coventry by retaining the Players Championship Finals crown in a sudden-death leg.<\/p>\n
The success sees Van Gerwen claim the Players Championship Finals title for a sixth time – a personal first which also sees him become only the second player in history, behind Phil Taylor, to win a televised event more than five times.<\/p>\n
He was also back to his best throughout six games at the Ricoh Arena, averaging 102 for the tournament before being visibly moved as he held the trophy aloft after a winning final of the highest quality.<\/p>\n
“I’m proud of myself,” admitted Van Gerwen. “I’ve worked hard for this, and to come back stronger and stronger like this means a lot to me.<\/p>\n
“Of course, it’s been a long time since I won a tournament so I’m glad I played a very nice tournament. I played well and I’m glad to have my hands back on the trophy.<\/p>\n
“I’ve been out of form for a few months and you need to battle back. You have to fight back and I’m glad I did.”<\/p>\n
Van Gerwen averaged 110 in a sensational 10-5 quarter-final win over Dirk van Duijvenbode, which he sealed with a 148 checkout, before then seeing off Gerwyn Price 11-8 from 8-6 down in the semi-finals.<\/p>\n
The final was another tight affair, with Van Gerwen opening with a 96 finish only for King to take out 115 and 107 on his way to a 3-1 lead.<\/p>\n
Van Gerwen powered home finishes of 146 and 94 in back-to-back 12-darters to level, before a 14-darter moved him 4-3 up.<\/p>\n
King capitalised on four misses from the Dutchman to square the final again, only for Van Gerwen to take out 72 and 160 to move two legs clear, before a 120 finish put the world number one 7-5 up.<\/p>\n
After King once more hit back to level, Van Gerwen produced a brilliant 135 bull finish only to see his opponent hit the same bed to take out 126 before levelling at nine-all with a 13-darter.<\/p>\n
Double eight moved Van Gerwen 10-9 up and to the brink of victory, before King posted tops for a 13-darter to create a deciding leg.<\/p>\n
However, Van Gerwen was first to a finish and posted double eight with his fourth match dart to finally seal a memorable title.
\n“I had to play my best performance I could, because Mervyn was playing a phenomenal game,” added the 31-year-old. “I couldn’t get rid of him and he kept pushing me to the end.<\/p>\n
“I needed a couple of really good finishes but I was thinking ‘don’t let this slip out of your hands’. That was the only thing that I was worrying about.”<\/p>\n
King, who was runner-up to Paul Nicholson in 2010, played his part in an epic decider after winning through to his first televised final for six years on Sunday.<\/p>\n
The 53-year-old had averaged over 100 in a stellar quarter-final win as he saw off Damon Heta 10-8, before punishing a below-par performance from World Champion Peter Wright in an 11-4 semi-final success.<\/p>\n
However, he was left to rue a fifth defeat in a televised PDC final as Van Gerwen left him waiting on 45 in their sudden-death leg.<\/p>\n
Price followed up last year’s run to the final of the event by reaching the semi-finals this time around, edging out Joe Cullen 10-9 in their quarter-final.<\/p>\n
Wright, meanwhile, came from 6-5 down to defeat Michael Smith 10-6 in their last eight contest, which also saw the St Helens thrower miss double 12 for a nine-dart finish.<\/p>\n
Sunday’s decisive final session at the Ricoh Arena in Coventry also saw the PDC Unicorn World Youth Championship final go to a sudden-death leg, as Bradley Brooks defeated Joe Davis to win that title.<\/p>\n
Blackburn’s Brooks, 20, claimed a \u00a310,000 top prize and also qualifies for next month’s William Hill World Darts Championship.<\/p>\n
Ladbrokes Players Championship Finals Evening Session Final<\/strong> PDC Unicorn World Youth Championship Final<\/strong> Emotional Michael van Gerwen returned to winning ways on the big stage with a dramatic 11-10 defeat of Mervyn King…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":2477,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[943,124],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2476","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-results"],"lang":"en","translations":{"en":2476,"de":2479},"pll_sync_post":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pdc2.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2476"}],"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=2476"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pdc2.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2476\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2478,"href":"https:\/\/pdc2.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2476\/revisions\/2478"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pdc2.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pdc2.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pdc2.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pdc2.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nSunday November 29
\nAfternoon Session
\nQuarter-Finals<\/strong>
\nMervyn King 10:8 Damon Heta
\nPeter Wright 10:6 Michael Smith
\nGerwyn Price 10:9 Joe Cullen
\nMichael van Gerwen 10:5 Dirk van Duijvenbode<\/p>\n
\nSemi-Finals<\/strong>
\nMervyn King 11:4 Peter Wright
\nMichael van Gerwen 11:8 Gerwyn Price<\/p>\n
\nMichael van Gerwen 11:10 Mervyn King<\/p>\n
\nBradley Brooks 6:5 Joe Davis<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"