Michael van Gerwen made it three wins out of three on this year’s PDC European Tour after beating Dave Chisnall 6-2 in the final of the Peperami Gibraltar Darts Trophy this evening.
The world number one added to his Dutch Masters and German Masters triumphs this year by retaining the Gibraltar Trophy and scooping the £25,000 winner’s prize at the Victoria Stadium.
MVG would not have it all his own way on the final day of the £115,000 tournament on The Rock though, as he came back from 5-3 down to beat Gibraltar’s Dyson Parody 6-5 in the quarter-finals.
The Dutchman had beaten Nick Fullwell (6-4) and Mervyn King (6-3) to start his title defence, before coming through a nervy last eight encounter with Parody, who became the first Gibraltarian to reach the quarter-finals of a PDC European Tour event.
Van Gerwen was clinical in beating Kim Huybrechts 6-0 in the semi-finals, averaging 109.92 and restricting the Belgian to just two darts at doubles to reach the final.
In a high-quality final both players averaged over 103, but MVG was just too strong for Chisnall as he reeled off four consecutive legs from 2-2 to run out a 6-2 winner.
An 87 checkout gave van Gerwen a break of throw in the first leg, before a 107 out shot made it back-to-back 15 darters and stretched the world number one’s lead to 2-0.
Chizzy fought back by hitting double 18 to hold his throw in the third leg, and then took out 124 on the bull to break back and level the final at 2-2.
However, two 180s in the next leg helped MVG to an 11 darter against the throw in the fifth leg, and legs of 15, 12 and 13 darts followed to continue the Dutchman’s winning start to the European Tour this year.
Chisnall had came through three deciders to reach the final in Gibraltar, with 6-5 wins over Steve West, Robert Thornton and Mensur Suljovic setting up a semi-final clash with Ian White.
Chizzy whitewashed White 6-0 to go through to his first ranked final of 2016, and a repeat of this year’s Unibet Masters final, which resulted in the same outcome with van Gerwen picking up the trophy.
2016 Peperami Gibraltar Darts Trophy
Last 16
(1) Michael van Gerwen 6-3 (16) Mervyn King
Max Hopp 4-6 Dyson Parody
(5) Kim Huybrechts 6-2 (12) Benito van de Pas
(4) James Wade 2-6 (13) Gary Anderson
(2) Peter Wright 6-2 (15) Simon Whitlock
(7) Ian White 6-2 Joe Murnan
(6) Dave Chisnall 6-5 (11) Robert Thornton
(3) Michael Smith 3-6 (14) Mensur Suljovic
Quarter-finals
(1) Michael van Gerwen 6-5 Dyson Parody
(5) Kim Huybrechts 6-5 (13) Gary Anderson
(2) Peter Wright 5-6 (7) Ian White
(6) Dave Chisnall 6-5 (14) Mensur Suljovic
Semi-finals
(1) Michael van Gerwen 6-0 (5) Kim Huybrechts
(7) Ian White 0-6 (6) Dave Chisnall
Final
(1) Michael van Gerwen 6-2 (6) Dave Chisnall
lovethedartsmag.com 