Unleashed Dirk van Duijvenbode seizes Players Championship 12 final victory | Sport

Earlier in the day, Van Duijvenbode already made a big impression at the floor tournament in Barnsley. In the quarter-finals he beat Australian Simon Whitlock 6-0 and in the semi-final he beat the English vice world champion Michael Smith with no less than 7-2.

The final against Searle rippled in all directions. Van Duijvenbode initially faced a 2-4 deficit and then turned this into a 7-4 lead. It was still biting nail when he let his opponent come back to 7-7, but in the decisive leg the Dutchman remained cool.

Van Duijvenbode seems to have regained his top form at the end of 2020. ‘Aubergenius’ surprised friend and foe by reaching the final of the World Grand Prix. A few months later he was quarter-finalist at the World Cup, but this was followed by a year with lesser performances.

Michael van Gerwen, who won Players Championship 10 last week and won the ninth match night of the Premier League on Thursday, now knows what to lose again. After nine victories in a row Mighty Mike at Players Championship 12 straight down. De Brabander was no match for the Englishman Scott Waites, two-time world champion (2013 and 2016) at the now discontinued BDO: 4-6.

Raymond van Barneveld also lost in the last 64. Barney was too strong for South African Devon Petersen in the first round (in which Van Gerwen did not have to take action), but then lost a round later to Belgian Dimitri Van den Bergh, the number eight in the world: 2- 6.

The second round was also the final station for Danny Noppert. The Freezewinner of a major television tournament this year at the UK Open, lost in Barnsley against Austrian Mensur Suljovic: 1-6.

Danny Jansen, last Friday the surprising winner of Players Championship 9, stranded in the second round, just like Van Gerwen, Van Barneveld and Noppert. Former world champion Gerwyn Price, second in the world ranking, defeated him 6-3.