Dirk van Duijvenbode edged out fellow Dutchman Michael van Gerwen 14-12 in an all-Netherlands second-round classic at the World Matchplay on Tuesday night.
The tie stretched deep into sudden-death before the ‘Aubergenius’ finally closed it out on his sixth match dart.It was, on paper, an unpredictable pairing between two players capable of averaging well above a ton on their day, or well below.
Van Gerwen led into the first break, though only in a match that stayed on-throw throughout the opening exchanges. It took until the seventh leg for either player to land the break they were chasing, and it was Dirk who got there first. He backed up the break in style with a 128 checkout as Van Gerwen stood on tops. The Titan carried that momentum into the second break, leading 6-4, which had been thoroughly deserved.
Van Gerwen was not finished, though. The three-time champion in Blackpool produced a burst to keep pace, a 148 checkout at one stage suggested he had found parity. But Van Duijvenbode refused to be shaken, and somehow the match was dragged into a sudden-death scenario.
The tie’s defining moment came in leg 25. Van Duijvenbode produced his best leg of the match, leaving 16 after just nine darts after back-to-back maximums that had the Winter Garden’s crowd sensing a nine-darter was on the cards. He closed out in 11 darts to break ‘MVG’s’ throw and edge back in front.
What followed was nervy finish from both players on the outer ring, but it was Van Duijvenbode who found the composure to get over the line, converting on his sixth match dart of the night to seal the win, and with it, a place in the quarter-finals.
Dirk now faces a tantalising tie with Scotsman Gary Anderson in the last-eight. Two very different players with contrasting experiences of the Winter Gardens Stage.
Images: PDC
