Painful defeat Michael van Gerwen at European Darts Grand Prix, Danny Noppert impresses | Sport

The 33-year-old Van Gerwen did not come into play at all in his second round match against Martin Lukeman: 1-6. The Englishman can be found on the Order of Merit – the global ranking for darts players – no less than 68 places lower than the Brabant number 3 in the world, but there was little noticeable in the match.

The average of 89.77 over three arrows by Van Gerwen was in stark contrast to the 96.16 of 37-year-old Lukeman. The Dutchman missed no less than 13 of his 14 doubles and will therefore absolutely not be pleased with his finish percentage of 7.14. Lukeman did that a lot better with 6 out of 16 (finish percentage 37.5).

Noppert fared a lot better in the Hanns-Martin-Schleyer-Halle in Stuttgart. The 31-year-old Frisian, who is in a strong phase of his career, won 6-4 against Michael Smith. Noppert broke the two-time World Cup finalist from England in the first game and did not relinquish that lead.

The average per three arrows was impressive for Noppert at 102.46. Smith’s 103.02 was even slightly higher, as was the double percentage (50 at 46.15) of bully boy† Still, it was Noppert who drew the longest straw.

Jelle Klaasen and Danny Jansen failed to reach the third round of the European Darts Grand Prix earlier in the day. Klaasen had to bow his head to Rob Cross 6-5, while Brendan Dolan was too strong for Jansen 6-4.

Tonight Dirk van Duijvenbode will also be in action in the second round. He’s up against Nathan Rafferty. The eighth finals, quarter-finals, semi-finals and final will be played tomorrow.