Gerwyn Price plays it cool (Picture: PDC Twitter)

Darts results: Gerwyn Price wins back-to-back Players Championship titles at the PDC Autumn Series

By Chris Hammer

Darts

Fri September 18, 2020 · 4y ago

Gerwyn Price won his second Players Championship tournament in a row as the PDC Autumn Series came to a conclusion in Germany.

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Scroll down for Autumn Series Order of Merit standings

The two-time Grand Slam of Darts champion, who survived four match darts from Devon Petersen in Tuesday's final, overcame Krzysztof Ratajski 8-5 to make it back-to-back PDC titles for the third time in a row having also managed it in 2019 and earlier this year before March's UK Open.

Price's second winners' cheque for £10,000 also means he comfortably topped the PDC Autumn Series Order of Merit with a total of £24,250 across the five days of action in Niedernhausen, while day three winner Michael van Gerwen finished runner-up with £16,750 after an inconsistent week by his standards.

The Welshman averaged over 100 on 'just' two occasions (both around 105) during his previous title run but was far more impressive during this one as he recorded marks of 103+ in all five of his matches en route to the final.

He defeated Vincent van der Voort 6-4 with an average of 106.3 before a pair of 103s helped him beat Madars Razma (6-3) and Chris Dobey (6-2) before reaching as high as 107.2 in a thrilling 6-5 victory over James Wade in the quarter-finals.

After posting 104.5 in his 7-3 defeat of Jose De Sousa, Price mustered 98.7 compared to Ratajski's 99 in a hard-fought final but it was enough to see him run out an 8-5 winner.

The 35-year-old, who now has 13 career PDC crowns, averaged a cumulative 100 during his 13-match winning streak over the past two days and appears to be hitting top form ahead of the upcoming majors, starting with this weekend's World Series of Darts Finals in Austria.

Tuesday's runner-up Petersen bounced back from his heartache against Price by landing a nine-dart finish in his clash against Dimitri Van den Bergh, but it wasn't enough to save him from defeat.

Ratajski enjoyed a pretty routine route to the final and only averaged above 100 once, when a mark of 103.2 helped him defeat Krzysztof Kciuk 6-2 in the opening round.

After that he beat Adrian Gray (6-2), Peter Jacques (6-3), Van den Bergh (6-4), Simon Whitlock (6-0) and Brendan Dolan (7-4) to reach his 10th PDC final in just three years.

The Polish Eagle has now lost three of those, with two coming against Price, but another strong run will further raise his stock in the PDC ranks.

Price told www.pdc.tv: "Winning yesterday put me at ease today. There was less pressure, I was already happy with my week's work. With the pressure off it shows the kind of game I can play. I played brilliant all day. The final was my worst game but I got over the line.

"I'm in a good place right now. I believe that my 'A-game' is better than anybody else's. I'm going into the World Series Finals with confidence and I'm looking forward to playing in front of a crowd again."

Elsewhere, Michael van Gerwen's inconsistent week ended with a 6-3 defeat to Jose De Sousa in the quarter-finals despite posting a higher average of 103 to his opponent's 101.9. The world number one, who was thumped 6-0 by Petersen on Tuesday, had earlier beaten Barrie Bates with a mark of 106 before seeing off Brian Raman, Dirk van Duijvenbode and Karel Sedlacek.

Lisa Ashton also rounded off an impressive Autumn Series by hitting a 10-dart leg, the best ever produced by a female player in PDC competition.