Danny Noppert has decided in his favor the Dutch meeting with Dirk van Duijvenbode at the World Matchplay on Friday. The Frisian won the quarterfinals in Blackpool 16-11.
Noppert started the match excellently and, despite a nice finish (132) by Van Duijvenbode, led 4-1. ‘Aubergenius’ quickly cleared one break deficit, but also faced a deficit for a while afterwards.
In the twelfth leg, Van Duijvenbode restored the balance (6-6). The battle then went on for a while, until Noppert impressively threw out 150 at 8-8. ‘The Freeze’ ran out to 12-9, but his opponent didn’t want to give up and cleared a break behind.
Then Noppert took a 14-11 lead and that turned out to be the final blow for Van Duijvenbode. The number eleven in the world did not allow the Katwijker a single leg and decided the match with a finish of 121.
In the semi-final battle, Noppert will face the winner of the match between Gerwyn Price and José de Sousa. The Welshman and the Portuguese will face each other later in the evening.
Michael van Gerwen previously joined the last four in the Winter Gardens. De Brabander beat Nathan Aspinall on Thursday 16-14 and will play in the semi-final against Belgian Dimitri Van den Bergh, who eliminated defending champion Peter Wright.
For the app users: tap the tweet to see how Danny Noppert decides the game beautifully.