Unheralded Names Shine Again at Players Championships

Michael Van Gerwen may have picked up his first ranking title of the year on Wednesday, after an 8-4 victory against Dave Chisnall in the final of Players Championship 21, but several lower ranked players also put in stand-out performances.

For the second time in as many days players ranked well outside the top echelons of Tour Card holders produced runs to the later stages with some major match wins along the way.

Richie Edhouse claimed a host of major scalps at the Robin Park Tennis Centre, dumping out former Lakeside champions Jelle Klaasen and Christian Kist to ignite his title challenge.

He also whitewashed Austrian veteran Mensur Suljovic and fought back from 5-2 down to deny Damon Heta in the quarter-finals, only to lose out to Chisnall in a dramatic semi final finale.

Edhouse was joined in the last four by Maik Kuivenhoven, who halted Luke Littler’s 15-match winning run in the last 16.

The Dutchman also saw off Robbie Knops, Berry van Peer, Jim Williams and Benjamin Reus to reach his first ProTour semi-final since July 2021.

Danish number one Reus accounted for Ryan Searle and William O’Connor in making his maiden ProTour quarter-final.

Van Gerwen, who’s last ranking title came at the Belgian Darts Open in May 2023, had reached the final firstly by recording victories against Lee Cocks, Ryan Meikle, Karel Sedlacek, James Wade, Gian Van Veen and Maik Kuivenhoven, to set up a clash with Chisnall in the decider, as the Pro Tour double header concluded at Wigan’s Robin Park Tennis Centre.

The final began with four straight holds of throw between the pair, before Van Gerwen stormed in front by rattling off five successive legs, which saw the Dutchman move 7-2 ahead and within one of victory. Chisnall did create a slight fightback by winning back-to-back legs, before Van Gerwen sealed the victory in Leg 12 with an 18 dart hold of throw to pick up a first Players Championship title since March 2023.

Chizzy reached the Semi Finals at Tuesday’s Players Championship 20 and went a step further 24 hours later, with the Englishman’s run to the final saw him record victories on the day against Jose De Sousa, Lee Evans, Jeffrey De Zwaan, Jonny Clayton, Stephen Bunting and Ritchie Edhouse, before being denied by MVG.

Elsewhere, there were Quarter Final runs for Australia’s Premier player Damon Heta and Denmark’s Benjamin Reus, who reached the Last Eight on the Pro Tour for the very first time having won his Tour Card back in January, whilst the likes of Luke Humphries, Rob Cross and Dimitri Van den Bergh were amongst the high profile first round casualties.

The PDC Pro Tour returns next week on 24-25^th September in Leicester with Players Championship 22 & 23 taking place, with 128 players competing for £125,000 in prize money each day, with play beginning at 13:00 BST.

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