Ian White beats Michael van Gerwen to win Dutch Darts Masters
Diamond White has now reached four successive Euro finals, winning the last two
By Paul Prenderville
Last Updated: 27/05/19 12:46pm
Ian White claimed a second European Tour title of the year beating Michael Van Gerwen to claim the Dutch Darts Masters in Zwolle.
The world No 11 is in spectacular form and underlined that fact by continuing his superb winning run on the European Tour with an impressive victory over Van Gerwen, who had claimed four of the previous six European titles this year.
However it was White that was victorious at the European Darts Grand Prix and, after beating Peter Wright to claim that title a couple of weeks ago, he stretched his winning run to 10 matches that also ended MVG's remarkable run of victories in last-leg deciders.
Van Gerwen had won his last 28 last-leg shoot outs, stretching back to 2014 and including an 8-7 victory over White in the Austrian Darts Open final at the start of the month.
White's superb 8-7 victory over last week's Premier League champion sealed a superb weekend's work that included wins over Micky Mansell, Jermaine Wattimena, Vincent van der Voort and Snakebite and ultimately ended MVG's run of six successive Dutch Darts Masters titles.
2019 PDC European Tour
| European Darts Open | Michael van Gerwen | 8-6 | Rob Cross |
|---|---|---|---|
| German Darts Championship | Daryl Gurney | 8-6 | Ricky Evans |
| German Darts Grand Prix | Michael van Gerwen | 8-3 | Simon Whitlock |
| German Darts Open | Michael van Gerwen | 8-3 | Ian White |
| Austrian Darts Open | Michael van Gerwen | 8-7 | Ian White |
| European Darts Grand Prix | Ian White | 8-7 | Peter Wright |
| Dutch Darts Masters | Ian White | 8-7 | Michael van Gerwen |
Van Gerwen was seeking a sixth successive Dutch Darts Masters crown in front of a partisan home crowd, but the world No 1 never led in the final as White prevailed.
"It's a great feeling to win this title, I always wanted to play Michael and beat him in a final so this shows I can do it," said White, who pocketed the £25,000 top prize for the victory and moves up to 10th in the Order of Merit.
"It was difficult playing in front of the Dutch crowd, but I understand they want Michael to win.
"I've been in quite a few finals lately, I've been playing well on the European Tour and this will help with my performances in TV events going forward.
"This is still a big stage and hopefully when I go to the World Matchplay I will do it up there as well, then I'll be flying up the top 10."
The seventh European Tour event of the year reached its climax on the final day of action, with the last-16 matches played in the afternoon, before the evening session saw the quarter-finals, semi-finals and final take place.
The afternoon session began with bitter defeat for legendary five-time world champion Raymond van Barneveld, who squandered a 5-4 lead as he went down 6-5 to Van Gerwen in an exhilarating all-Dutch affair.
Van Gerwen also came close to defeat in his incredible semi-final with in-form fourth seed Gerwyn Price, which saw Van Gerwen win 7-6.
The weekend was a successful one for two-time ProTour event winner Glen Durrant, who reached the quarter-finals of a European Tour event for the first time where he went down to Price 6-3.
You don't have to wait long for more live darts with coverage of all four days of the World Cup of Darts from Hamburg live on Sky Sports Action from June 6-9
