GVV Claims Maiden Senior Title

Gian van Veen won his first PDC ranking title at Players Championship Six in Leicester on Wednesday, defeating Luke Humphries 8-3 in the final.

Having lost to Joe Cullen in Tuesday’s Players Championship Five final – in which he missed six match darts – Van Veen bounced back to go one better at the Mattioli Arena.

Van Veen defeated world number one Humphries in his fifth ProTour final, having previously come runner-up in four Players Championship events and a European Tour event.

“After what happened yesterday, this feels amazing,” said reigning World Youth Champion Van Veen.

“I’ve had two incredible days here; I felt a bit hard done by yesterday and I was heartbroken after I lost the final, so to rectify that today is unbelievable.

“I’ve been playing well so far this year and my goal was to win a title; I knew I was the highest-ranked player without a ranking title.

“I’ve achieved that now and this win will give me massive confidence going into a busy next few weeks.”

Van Veen’s run to the title began with comfortable wins over Steve Lennon and Krzysztof Ratajski before coming through a last-leg decider with Connor Scutt to reach the last 16.

There, he defeated fellow-Dutchman Jermaine Wattimena and backed it up with further convincing wins over James Wade and Madars Razma to reach the final.

The final saw Van Veen race into a 3-0 lead, and the Dutchman kept his composure to deny Humphries a route back into the contest.

Elsewhere, World Champion Luke Littler lost a last-leg decider to Dom Taylor in round two, while Michael van Gerwen fell at the same stage to Ryan Meikle.

Wednesday’s action saw two nine-dart finishes hit in the first round by Humphries and Alan Soutar in their matches against Andy Boulton and Littler respectively.

The PDC ProTour season continues with Players Championships Seven and Eight in Hildesheim on March 17-18, with coverage from four streaming boards broadcast live through PDCTV.

Full tournament results are listed in the Match Centre.