Mensur Suljovic (Picture: PDC/Chris Dean)

Champions League of Darts: Mensur Suljovic and Michael van Gerwen make perfect starts in Brighton

By Sporting Life

Darts

Sun September 23, 2018 · 6y ago

Mensur Suljovic booked his place in the Paddy Power Champions League of Darts semi-finals as he continued his stunning tournament record in Brighton - while Michael van Gerwen has all but qualified.

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Defending champion Suljovic and world number one MVG both recorded two wins on the opening day of the BBC-televised tournament at The Brighton Centre, but Simon Whitlock and Dave Chisnall were the first to be eliminated.

Van Gerwen was at his relentless best, producing two ton-plus averages in his victories over Chisnall and Daryl Gurney in Group A as he bids to win the third staging of this tournament for the first time.

He faces Gary Anderson in his third group game but there is a slim chance he could still go out if he suffers a heavy defeat and Daryl Gurney is able to pick up a big win over Chizzy.

The Dutchman averaged 111.23 in his 10-2 demolition of Chisnall, missing just two darts at double and limiting his opponent to four darts at the outer ring.

Van Gerwen followed up his afternoon success by racing into a 5-0 lead over Gurney before the Northern Irishman battled back to 9-7 and then missed two darts to make it 8-9, only for Van Gerwen to punish his misses to wrap up a 10-7 win.

World Grand Prix champion Gurney had earlier got his campaign off to a terrific start with a 10-8 triumph over Gary Anderson.

A clinical performance from the world number five saw him hit 55.6% of his attempts at double and three ton-plus checkouts, including a magnificent 158 checkout.

However, Anderson's comfortable 10-3 win over Dave Chisnall during the evening session elevated the Scot to second in Group A heading into the second day of action, with Gurney also still in the mix to progress.

In Group B, Suljovic began the defence of his title with a hard-fought 10-8 win over world champion Rob Cross in the opening game of the tournament.

After a tense start, the Austrian found his stride in the second half of the contest to get his first two points on the board and followed that up with a 10-7 victory over Peter Wright, averaging 105.53 in the process.

World number two Wright staved off a comeback from Simon Whitlock to win 10-7 in their opening Group B tie which saw 13 180s hit, while Cross recovered from a disappointing start to the day to see off Whitlock 10-8.

With both Wright and Cross now tied on points and leg difference, their clash on Sunday afternoon will be a straight shoot-out to decide who will qualify from Group B alongside Suljovic.