World Grand Prix - Report and Statistics Final

BRILLIANT VAN GERWEN COMPLETES UNIBET WORLD GRAND PRIX TREBLE
MICHAEL VAN GERWEN claimed glory at the Unibet World Grand Prix for a third time with an incredible 5-2 triumph over Gary Anderson in Saturday's final at Dublin's Citywest Hotel.

The Dutchman followed up his 2012 and 2014 triumphs by erasing the memories of last year's loss in the final to another Scot, Robert Thornton, with one of the greatest performances in the double-start event's history. The world number one was averaging 108 as he stormed into a three-set lead by winning nine of the opening 11 legs, and held off Anderson's brief rally to scoop the 100,000 pound first prize and his 21st tournament win of the year.

"It's an amazing win and I'm so happy I've won this tournament again," said the 27-year-old. "Everything has been great for me in this tournament and I also played fantastic darts. After three or four sets I was averaging about 108 and I think if you play like that you deserve to win this trophy. I put him under pressure from the beginning and that worked. He pushed me until the end and I had to fight really hard. Gary never gives up but I played fantastic tonight. A lot of people have played well against me this week but my confidence is sky high. I had a tournament average of 100 and not many people do that in this format."

Van Gerwen raced through the first set without reply, hitting a 180 in only his second visit to the board and using just 43 darts to take the lead, before coming from a leg down to win the next two sets and take his match average to 110 in-running. Anderson hit back in set four as he took three successive legs to finally get off the mark in set four, and finished 108 as he shared the opening four legs of the fifth. Van Gerwen, though, hit a crucial double ten to win the deciding leg to move into a 4-1 lead and deny the World Champion the chance to hit back. Anderson claimed his second set by winning the sixth without reply and also led in the next, but van Gerwen landed six perfect darts as he levelled before hitting double 16 to move 2-1 up and marvellous 160 checkout to seal the title. The 160 finish, his second ton-plus finish of the game, followed seven 180s and moved his average to 100.29, the highest in a World Grand Prix final to surpass Phil Taylor's 100.17 in the 2002 decider.

Anderson, who takes home 45,000 pound as runner-up from his first World Grand Prix final, hit eight 180s in reply but was unable to hit back from his rival's amazing start.
"I've done well here this week and I'm happy to have reached the final, but Michael's something else," said Anderson. "It's four years since he first won here and it's absolutely astonishing what he's done since. My starting wasn't good enough and I couldn't get off and if you give Michael a head start you've got no chance - he's hard enough to play in a straight start, never mind in double start. I've started to come good and I'm going to look forward to the next few months."


The night also saw Mick McGowan retain the Tom Kirby Memorial Irish Matchplay title. MICK McGOWAN became the first player to retain the Tom Kirby Memorial Irish Matchplay title with a narrow 6-5 win over Radek Szaganski at the Citywest Hotel in Dublin on Saturday, securing his place in the William Hill World Darts Championship in the process.
The Balbriggan thrower relaunched his career when he picked up the top domestic honour 12 months ago by edging out Tom Biggane, and repeated the success with a deciding-leg win over Cork-based Szaganski. A tight contest saw all 11 legs won with throw, with Szaganski missing the bull to snatch victory in the final leg before McGowan followed a 180 with a 60 finish.
McGowan is the first player since the tournament, named in honour of the late Irish professional Tom Kirby, was launched in 2008 to retain the title, and he said: "It's a special night. This trophy means so much to me and to defend it is absolutely fantastic. He was a great friend of mine and to win this the first time was brilliant, so to retain it is something really special. This year I've had a number of performances on stage and I've been getting better and better. This was a bit nervy but I got the job done."



Statistics
Ave180sDoubles InDoubles OutPlayervPlayer Ave180sDoubles InDoubles Out
100.29726/4515/36v.Gerwen 5:2Anderson92.73826/6811/26











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