Van Duijvenbode Battling Back

Dave Chisnall may have picked up his first title of the year on Tuesday, after an 8-6 victory. But for Dirk Van Duijvenbode reaching the the final of Players Championship Six, must have come as a tremendous relief.

As the third weekend of the 2024 Pro Tour season ended – at Halle 39, Hildesheim – The Titan produced a trio of dramatic final leg wins to move from the last 16 to the final, overcoming in form trio of James Wade, Danny Jansen and Daryl Gurney.

The final began with Chisnall racing into a 3-0 lead, with winning legs coming in 17,11 and 21 darts respectively, before Van Duijvenbode ended the run in Leg Four with an 11 dart hold of throw. The tie then saw a run of four straight holds of throw, which was ended with a 22-dart break from Van Duijvenbode, which was then followed by a 13 dart hold to square the tie up at 5apiece. Surely The Aubergenius could not do it again?

The answer was no as Chisnall went on to dominate the remainder of the final by winning three of the following four legs and sealing the victory in Leg 14 with a 16-dart break of throw to pick up the £15,000 top prize and a 23^rd PDC title of his career.

However, many will see such a hard and successful run as evidence that the talented Dutchman is finally over a terrible spell of injuries. Wrist. elbow and knee injuries have played the 31-year-old over the past couple of years just at a time when he seemed ready to reach the very top of the sport.

Chisnall, who picked up two Players Championship victories and reached a further three finals during an excellent 2023 campaign, reached the final firstly by recording victories against Cameron Menzies, Adam Gawlas, Vincent Van der Voort, Dom Taylor, Martin Schindler and Ross Smith, to set up a clash with Van Duijvenbode.

Van Duijvenbode’s run to the final saw the Dutchman record victories on the day against Mensur Suljovic, Stefan Bellmont, Ritchie Edhouse, James Wade, Danny Jansen and Daryl Gurney, before being denied by Chizzy.

Elsewhere, there were Quarter Final runs for Czech’s Karel Sedlacek and Non-Tour Card Holder Connor Scutt, whilst the likes of Peter Wright, Dimitri Van den Bergh and Joe Cullen were amongst the high-profile names to suffer first round exits.

The PDC Pro Tour returns on April 8-9 in Leicester with Players Championship Seven & Eight taking place, with the 128 players competing for £125,000 in prize money each day, with play beginning at 13:00 GMT.

Play will be broadcasted across two streaming boards on PDC.TV and various bookmaker websites worldwide, with all live scores and results on tv.dartconnect.com.