Darts results: Gerwyn Price survives four match darts against Michael van Gerwen's conqueror Devon Petersen to win Players Championship title
Gerwyn Price survived four match darts against Michael van Gerwen's conqueror Devon Petersen before winning a thrilling Players Championship final 8-7 in Germany.
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It was a fitting climax to a dramatic fourth day of darts at the PDC's Autumn Series, which looked set to belong to the revitalised African Warrior after he incredibly whitewashed Michael van Gerwen 6-0 in the third round with an average of 101.3 compared to his opponent's 90.5.
This just came 24 hours after the world number one shunned crisis talk amongst darts fans and pundits by bounced back to trophy-winning form in Niedernhausen before proclaiming: "I'm still the boss". A reminder, perhaps, that knee-jerk reactions of any kind are ill-advised in all sports.
Petersen, who'd earlier beaten Robert Thornton (6-2) and Joe Murnan (6-5), followed this up with a 6-3 victory over Jermaine Wattimena before raising the bar even higher when recording a 110 average during a 6-2 triumph over Premier League play-off qualifier Nathan Aspinall.
The 34-year-old next faced his close friend and Sunday's runner-up Joe Cullen as he strived to become the first African to reach a PDC final.
Despite agonisingly missed match darts in both of his previous semi-finals against Price at the Summer Series and Madars Razma as recently as Saturday, Petersen stood up to the pressure and achieved a landmark 7-2 victory with a 96 average.
He subsequently stood up to the challenge of Price - and more - in his maiden final and stormed into a 7-4 lead thanks to seven 180s and clinical finishing.
However, he missed his first title dart at double 16 in the 13th leg as the two-time Grand Slam of Darts champion returned to take out 78, before spurning three at tops in the next.
Price punished him to force a deciding leg, in which he fired his second maximum of the match en route to a title-winning 14-darter.
The Welshman had enjoyed a less eventful day en route to his 23rd PDC final, as he overcame Nick Kenny (6-1), Martin Schindler (6-4), Damon Heta (6-4) before thrashing Ryan Murray 6-0 with an average of 105.
He edged out Mensur Suljovic 6-4 in a hard-fought quarter-final but then produced a sizzling 105.8 average in a 7-2 victory over Ryan Searle.
Price had to conjure up all his fighting qualities against Petersen, who beat him on Saturday, as he defied his opponent's 98.38 average with a lesser mark of 92.29 to seal his 12th PDC title.
"I'm happy that I've won," the world number three told www.pdc.tv. "Devon played well in the final and probably deserved to win. "Every time I play Devon he plays well against me. I was up and down today and I wasn't the best in the final, Devon flew out of the blocks but I hung in there.
"When he got to seven legs I just thought to keep digging in and if he missed chances I've got to pop them, and that's what happened. It was tough
"The first three days I've been losing with high averages, today I didn't play so well but I won."
Price recently narrowly missed out on the Unibet Premier League Play-Offs on the final night of action.
"I wanted to get into the Play-Offs of the Premier League but that didn't happen," he added. "It's been tough playing all those Premier League nights followed by another five tournaments here but I'm enjoying it."
PDC Autumn Series Day Four Results (Tuesday, September 15)
Last 16 onwards. For all the Players Championship NINE results and detailed stats, head to Dart Connect (tv.dartconnect.com/events/pdc)
Last 16
- Joe Cullen 6-4 Peter Wright
- Derk Telnekes 6-4 James Wade
- Devon Petersen 6-3 Jermaine Wattimena
- Nathan Aspinall 6-5 Danny Noppert
- Gerwyn Price 6-0 Ryan Murray
- Mensur Suljovic 6-5 William O'Connor
- Ross Smith 6-4 Krzysztof Ratajski
- Ryan Searle 6-3 Jonny Clayton
Quarter-Finals
- Joe Cullen 6-3 Derk Telnekes
- Devon Petersen 6-2 Nathan Aspinall
- Gerwyn Price 6-4 Mensur Suljovic
- Ryan Searle 6-5 Ross Smith
Semi-Finals
- Devon Petersen 7-2 Joe Cullen
- Gerwyn Price 7-2 Ryan Searle
Final
- Gerwyn Price 8-7 Devon Petersen