VAN BARNEVELD CLAIMS EUROPEAN DARTS OPEN TITLE
Raymond van Barneveld won the European Darts Open title on Sunday night, crowning a superb weekend of darts at the Maritim Hotel in Dusseldorf with a 6-4 defeat of Dave Chisnall in the final.
The Dutchman took the 15,000 pound first prize in the third of the PDC's European Tour events with a fine day of darts, following up his earlier wins over Ian White and Brendan Dolan with victories against Gino Vos, James Wade, Richie Burnett and Chisnall.
After defeating young Dutchman Vos 6-2 in Sunday afternoon's third round, van Barneveld repeated the scoreline in the quarter-finals as he came from 2-0 down to defeat world number three Wade by winning six successive legs.
Van Barneveld then defeated former World Champion Burnett 6-4 in the semis, and won the final by the same scoreline.
He hit a 136 checkout in taking an early 3-1 lead and landed four 180s in the game before sealing victory in style with an 11-dart finish.
"I'm really pleased and happy that I won this tournament," said van Barneveld. "This is a big achievement for me.
Dave is really playing well at the moment and I'm so happy. I said in January that I was going to play in every tournament and see what happens, and so far I'm doing really well.
I believe that since I've invested more in myself this year I've got more out of it.
It seems so long ago for me since I won a 'major' tournament and for me this was a major because you had a big crowd and fantastic players."
He added: "I'm going to go away now and practice every day for the next two weeks building up to the World Matchplay, and hopefully I can do well there."
Chisnall's run saw him reach a second successive European Tour final, with the St Helens ace following up his loss to Phil Taylor in the German Darts Championship final in Berlin a fortnight ago by reaching the Dusseldorf decider.
He defeated Mark Dudbridge 6-2 in the third round before seeing off Simon Whitlock in a deciding leg in the quarter-finals, and then overcame Mervyn King 6-3 in the semis as he took home 7,500 pound
.
Burnett rolled back the years with some brilliant performances in Dusseldorf, defeating youngsters Michael van Gerwen and James Hubbard on Sunday to win through to the semis, where he picked up 5,000 pound prize money.
King's run to the semis included victories against Steve Beaton and Colin Osborne on Sunday, as he defeated the latter in the quarter-finals with a 105 average, and he moves back up to 18th in the PDC Order of Merit following the tournament.
PDC Unicorn World Youth Champion Hubbard's achievement in reaching the quarter-finals also saw him claim a qualifying place in the Betfair World Matchplay, as he defeated Mark Walsh in the third round on Sunday afternoon.
Osborne also secured a Blackpool spot in the final tournament before the qualifying cut-off, and he was joined in losing at the quarter-final stage by Wade and Whitlock.