Dutch emerges as the star as Painter faces departure
Dutch darts player Michael van Gerwen was able to reinstate Dutch glory at the Ladbrokes World Championship 2012, after he was able to show Mervyn King the exit door of Ally Pally.
With this victory, van Gerwen has been able to secure his place in the top 16 of the Championship.
The game play exhibited by the Dutch was a comprehensible manifestation of the fact that a player could still achieve victory, not by making it to the bull’s eye every time but by simply ensuring that he checkouts with the right scores.
It was with the help of this strategy that van Gerwen reserved his seat in the quarter final of the event against Australian Simon Whitlock.
With the help of a superb checkout technique of 158 and 148, respectively, van Gerwen was able to defeat his senior opponent by 4-1.
"I hit the right shots at the right times and that proved to be really important for me,"
said van Gerwen.
He added, "I feel confident at the moment. I have reached the third round of this tournament for the first time and I hope to go further".
While making tremendous checkouts, the Dutch player was also able to keep up his scores by hitting a couple of 180’s that played the role of a catalyst in his victory.
However, in his next encounter van Gerwen will have to gear himself for some real action against Whitlock.
The Australian darts player was able to win his previous encounter in an injured state of his hand. However, for his upcoming match, when he is expected to be in full form, the clash will be extremely entertaining.
On being asked about his recent encounter, Whitlock said, "There's so many good players around I feel anybody could win this tournament - including me. Michael's (van Gerwen) been playing very well the last few months".
In another encounter, the former darts champion, Colin Lloyd, was able to once again wrap up the dreams of lorry driver c*m darts player, Scott Rand, after defeating him by 4-1.
Even after winning his campaign opening match against Andy Smith, Rand could not stick to his momentum of keeping the flames of victory illuminated.
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