Michael van Gerwen won the Austrian Darts Open final (Picture: Kais Bodensieck/PDC Europe)

Austrian Darts Open results: Michael van Gerwen beats Ian White to title

By Sporting Life

20:32 · WED May 08, 2019

Michael van Gerwen survived more than one scare to win the Austrian Darts Open, beating Ian White 8-7 in Sunday's final.

The three-time world champion combined three convincing wins with two hard-fought ones to scoop the title but only after White had taken him the distance.

Earlier, Peter Wright fought back from 3-0 and 5-3 down to force a decider, but on both occasions van Gerwen had the answers.

It was a third victory in the event for van Gerwen, who also saw off Steve Lennon, Stephen Bunting and Daryl Gurney along the way.

Against Gurney in the semi-final - a rematch of their Premier League encounter won by the Northern Irishman on Thursday - van Gerwen threw checkouts of 170 and 164 in back-to-back legs.

That level was absent through much of the final, but five maximums and a 13-dart closing leg proved enough.

Sunday's final was a repeat of last weekend's German Darts Open final, which van Gerwen had won 8-3. This time, things would be a good deal closer.

White took an early 3-1 lead as he followed up two 14-darters with a 138 checkout, only for van Gerwen to win three in a row and move 4-3 up.

The pair then traded the next four legs before a 13-dart break of throw from Van Gerwen saw him open up a 7-5 lead and move to the brink of victory.

Legs of 14 and 15 darts from White saw him take the contest all the way, but van Gerwen - with the advantage of throw - produced a timely 13-darter to secure yet another triumph.

White had followed up Saturday's win over Jamie Hughes with a big 6-1 win over Keegan Brown in round three, and landed a ten-darter during his quarter-final with Steve Beaton before sealing a 6-2 win with a 126 bullseye finish.

White then defeated James Wade 7-4 in the semi-finals, with the first eight legs being shared before the left-hander's miss at tops, for a 160 finish in leg nine, allowed him in for a key 11-darter before he pulled clear.

Wade's run to the semi-finals surpassed his quarter-final appearance in March's European Darts Open, as he defeated Premier League rivals Mensur Suljovic and Gerwyn Price on Sunday.

He was eventually undone by White, who punished a key miss at tops to complete a 160 finish in leg nine - with the scores locked at 4-4 - to break with an 11-darter before pulling away for victory.

Gurney saw off Mark Webster and Adrian Lewis in his first two games on Sunday, but saw his hopes of claiming a fourth successive win over van Gerwen dashed by the world number one.

Wright was a quarter-finalist for a third time this year on the European Tour before he was edged out by van Gerwen, while Lewis was a quarter-finalist for a second successive weekend.

Beaton followed up last weekend's nine-darter at the German Darts Open by overcoming 2018 world champion Rob Cross to reach his first European Tour quarter-final since September 2017.

Price finished six doubles from eight attempts in his third round win over Darius Labanauskas, but suffered defeat for a second time in four days to Wade as his hopes were ended in the last eight.