Three-time PDC World Champion Michael van Gerwen was forced to cling to the rigging, white-knuckled and wide-eyed, as a towering wave named Mitsuhiko Tatsunami rose up from the deep and threatened to drag him under at the Alexandra Palace last night.
The seas were vicious, the waters treacherous, and for a long while it looked like the great Dutch galleon might be swallowed whole before it ever reached the safety of round two.
Japan had already etched its name into the day’s narrative earlier on, Motomu Sakai delivering a ruthless whitewash of Triault Tricole in the afternoon session. Sakai was front and centre once again, this time in the guests section of the crowd cheering on his compatriot as Tatsunami dared to dream of something even more seismic.
To say van Gerwen began sluggishly would be a grotesque understatement. This was MVG with sand in the engine and doubt in the eyes. Loose scoring, clumsy visits at the doubles, and suddenly the Asian qualifier had pinched the opening set. Two legs into the second and the number three seed was staring down the barrel of a deficit that would have shaken the walls of Alexandra Palace.
Somehow, through grit rather than greatness, van Gerwen steadied himself and limped to the second interval with the scores level.
And then – finally – the storm cleared. The real Michael van Gerwen emerged after the break, shoulders squared, jaw set, authority restored. This was the version the world expected. Tatsunami bravely held throw once in the third set, but the tide had turned and there was no longer any sense he could wrestle control from the Dutch colossus. With the winning line in sight, it felt inevitable. Not if, but when.
Except darts, as ever, refused to follow the script.Tatsunami surged into a 2–0 leg lead. Van Gerwen clawed one back. Then came the moment that will haunt the Japanese qualifier long after the lights dimmed – six darts at doubles to force a decider, six chances at immortality, all squandered.
Surely that was it. Surely the dream was dead. Still no.More darts at the outer ring came and went as Tatsunami once again stood on the brink of levelling the match at two sets apiece. Agony etched across his face as relief flooded the features of the decorated Dutchman, who finally slammed the door shut. It was survival, nothing more.
Victory by the skin of his teeth. William O’Connor or Krzysztof Ratajski await next, and van Gerwen will know he cannot flirt with disaster again.
Elsewhere, Jermaine Wattimena also sailed perilously close to the wind before edging past Dominik Grüllich in a contest that lurched violently against expectation.
The German arrived on an eight-match losing streak. His opponent arrived in the form of his life, freshly liberated from a career-long title drought with not one but two Players Championship triumphs.
The Machine Gun burst into action early, taking the opening set with Grüllich nowhere near the pace. Then, without warning, the momentum flipped. Wattimena’s rhythm deserted him, Grüllich found belief, and after levelling the match he capitalised ruthlessly on missed doubles to nose ahead at 2–1.Hold throw, and another upset beckoned.
But this was the pivotal moment – the Westervoort-born slinger broke and then held when, in truth, the leg was Dominik’s to lose. From there it was a procession. One-way traffic. Wattimena roared home to book a mouth-watering round two showdown with Scott Williams.
Everyone’s perennial bridesmaid of the oche, Dave Chisnall also marched on. The St Helens man booked his place in round two after dispatching Fallon Sherrock without excessive fuss.
It has not been a vintage season for Chizzy, the UK Open the lone bright flare in an otherwise muted campaign, but experience told under the lights. Six years on from Sherrock’s glass-ceiling moment – the first woman to win a match on the Ally Pally stage – thisnvisy proved less rewarding.
The Queen of the Palace found chances at the doubles in abundance, more than Chisnall in fact, but conversion deserted her at the worst possible moments. Chisnall, clad in yellow and bristling with intent, was colder, cleaner, and far more ruthless where it mattered.
That, in the end, was the story. Chances versus punishment. Hope versus execution. Ricardo Pietreczko awaits next.
Krzysztof Ratajski flew into the last 32 with a no fuss, no nonsense straight sets win over the Filipino. The Polish Eagle has produced a real surge in form in the lastfew weeks and is begining to look closer to his old dangerous self. It was Alexis’s misfortune to meet such a surge without a boat or paddle.
THURSDAY 18th DECEMBER – Evening Session Report
Jermaine Wattimena 3-2 Dominik Gruellich
Dave Chisnall 3-0 Fallon Sherrock
MIchael van Gerwen 3-2 Mitsuhiko Tatsunami
Krzysztof Ratajski 3-0 Alexis Toylo
—-‘-Ends—–
Images: PDC
