Michael van Gerwen picked up his second European Tour title of the year in Graz on Sunday, defeating Danny Noppert 8-5 in the final of the Interwetten Austrian Darts Open.<\/p>\n
Van Gerwen backed up his German Darts Championship win in March by defeating fellow-Dutchman Noppert in front of a capacity crowd at the Premst\u00e4ttner Halle to pocket the \u00a325,000 winner’s prize.<\/p>\n
The world number three ended last year with just one ranking title to his name, but already has four this time around as the three-time World Champion continues his resurgence in 2022.<\/p>\n
“I always want to win, I always put pressure on my shoulders so to win this title means a lot,” said Van Gerwen, who now has 34 European Tour titles to his name.<\/p>\n
“We all had to wait a long time to play this tournament again but this crowd made it worth the wait; they were phenomenal, not just for me but for everyone in the tournament.<\/p>\n
“It was really hard to perform on stage because of the heat which makes me even more proud of myself to get this win.”<\/p>\n
The tournament reached its climax with Finals Day on Sunday, with the last 16 taking place in the afternoon session before the quarter-finals, semi-finals and final in the evening.<\/p>\n
Van Gerwen avenged Thursday’s Premier League loss to James Wade in the last 16 tie, coming through a last-leg decider to set up a quarter-final meeting with Dirk van Duijvenbode.<\/p>\n
Van Gerwen’s most impressive display of the weekend saw him average 106.05 to earn a 6-1 win over his countryman, before seeing off Stephen Bunting 7-5 in the semi-finals.<\/p>\n
The final saw Noppert fight back from 3-0 down, hitting a 120 checkout on the way, to level at 3-3 and the pair remained all square four legs later at 5-5.<\/p>\n
The 12th leg proved decisive as Van Gerwen landed a 14-dart break of throw to open up daylight at 7-5, before following up with another 14-darter to seal victory.<\/p>\n
The wait for a maiden European Tour title goes on for Noppert, who reached his first final having previously made the semi-finals on three occasions.<\/p>\n
The UK Open champion enjoyed victories over Premier League leader Jonny Clayton, Joe Cullen and Nathan Aspinall en route to the final.<\/p>\n
It was another encouraging weekend for Aspinall on his return from injury, defeating Madars Razma and Ricky Evans to reach the last four.<\/p>\n
The European Tour returns with the Interwetten European Darts Open (ET5) from May 6-8 at the Ostermann Arena in Leverkusen, Germany. Tickets are on sale through PDC Europe.<\/p>\n
Interwetten Austrian Darts Open Evening Session Semi-Finals<\/strong> Final<\/strong> Michael van Gerwen picked up his second European Tour title of the year in Graz on Sunday, defeating Danny Noppert…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":4663,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[943,109,124],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4662","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-pdc-europe","category-results"],"yoast_head":"\n
\nSchedule of Play
\nSunday May 1
\nAfternoon Session
\nThird Round<\/strong>
\nDanny Noppert 6-2 Jonny Clayton
\nJoe Cullen 6-2 Krzysztof Ratajski
\nRicky Evans 6-0 Danny Jansen
\nNathan Aspinall 6-2 Madars Razma
\nDirk van Duijvenbode 6-1 Zoran Lerchbacher
\nMichael van Gerwen 6-5 James Wade
\nRob Cross 6-5 Gabriel Clemens
\nStephen Bunting 6-4 Callan Rydz<\/p>\n
\nQuarter-Finals<\/strong>
\nDanny Noppert 6-1 Joe Cullen
\nNathan Aspinall 6-5 Ricky Evans
\nMichael van Gerwen 6-1 Dirk van Duijvenbode
\nStephen Bunting 6-4 Rob Cross<\/p>\n
\nDanny Noppert 7-2 Nathan Aspinall
\nMichael van Gerwen 7-5 Stephen Bunting<\/p>\n
\nMichael van Gerwen 8-5 Danny Noppert<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"