Imperious Michael van Gerwen took victory in the Peperami Gibraltar Darts Trophy, defeating Dave Chisnall 6-2 in the final to retain the title on ‘The Rock’ and win his third successive PDC European Tour event of 2016.
The world number one has been unstoppable on the European Tour this year, and followed up his victories in the Dutch Darts Masters and German Darts Masters by taking the title in Gibraltar.
However, van Gerwen would not have it all his own way on the final day, as he followed up his third round win over Mervyn King in the afternoon session with a nervy, narrow quarter-final victory over Gibraltar’s Dyson Parody.
Parody landed seven 180s in a thrilling display as he became the first Gibraltarian in the last eight of a PDC European Tour event, but the home favourite crucially missed three match darts before van Gerwen prevailed in a decider.
Following that scare, van Gerwen was clinical as he restricted Kim Huybrechts to just two darts at doubles in a ruthless 6-0 semi-final victory, averaging 109.92 in the process, before powering past Chisnall in the decider.
Chisnall kicked off the final with a 180, but had to come from two legs down – after van Gerwen took out 82 and 107 – to level by checking out a 13-dart finish and 124 on the bull to level.
Van Gerwen, though, kicked off leg five with two 180s as he regained the lead with an 11-darter, before finishing 106 and 124 in successive legs to lead 5-2, and a fourth straight leg sealed the £25,000 top prize.
Chisnall also stared defeat in the face in a tight quarter-final as he survived three missed match darts from Mensur Suljovic before matching van Gerwen with a brilliant 6-0 semi-final win over Ian White.
However, the St Helens ace was forced to settle for the £10,000 runner-up prize as he missed out on a second European Tour title in his fifth final.
Huybrechts edged out World Champion Gary Anderson 6-5 in the quarter-finals as all four games at the last eight stage went the distance, with the other contest seeing White survive a missed match dart from Peter Wright – for a 6-4 victory before he prevailed.
The PDC European Tour continues next weekend with the HappyBet European Darts Matchplay taking place in Hamburg, where the Inselparkhalle will host the sport’s top names from May 13-15
