PDC World Championship: Gary Anderson must keep hitting doubles, says Wayne Mardle
He'll win the final if he does...
Sunday 4 January 2015 16:22, UK
Gary Anderson can win the World Championship if he maintains his accuracy on doubles, says Wayne Mardle.
‘The Flying Scotsman’ meets Phil Taylor in Sunday night’s finale at Alexandra Palace live on Sky Sports Darts from 8pm.
If he carries on hitting tops like that, mark my words, he will not get beaten because his scoring is so good.
Anderson averaged 102.20 overall while hitting 50 per cent of his doubles in his 6-3 win over reigning champion and world No 1 Michael van Gerwen in the semi-final – and Mardle suggests a repeat performance is good enough to beat Taylor.
“Van Gerwen was beaten by the better player on the night,” Mardle said. “Anderson was special, he was brilliant. He’s been doing that (scoring) but it was the doubles that improved.
“If he carries on hitting tops like that, mark my words, he will not get beaten because his scoring is so good.
“Gary Anderson loses because he misses doubles – (against Van Gerwen) he won because he hit doubles. Nobody can live with him when he does that. Whether you’re world champion or world No 1, you will get beaten by Gary Anderson.”
Special things at crucial times
Mardle also praised the mentality of the Scot which allowed him to persevere in trying circumstances.
He said: “It was a superb professional performance from a player that sometimes loses games he should win. That was a game he should have won, and did.
“It was the way he dealt with the adversity. He was 3-1 up and it went 3-3 because he lost some really tight legs and then he could have gone 4-3 down but Michael missed three at 36.
“After that, Gary held himself together better than Van Gerwen.”
Fellow expert Rod Harrington added: “You’ve got to do special things at crucial times in games. Michael didn’t do that and Gary did. Thirty-six 140s is incredible.”
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