Players Championship: Michael van Gerwen too strong for James Wade in Crawley final

Michael van Gerwen denied James Wade a Players Championship double as he claimed a 6-2 victory over his rival in Sunday's tournament in Crawley.

Wade had picked up a £10,000 prize by winning Saturday's Players Championship at The K2 Centre, and lined himself up for a memorable ProTour double by reaching the decider 24 hours later.

However, van Gerwen defeated him for the second successive Sunday as the Dutch ace followed up last week's partypoker.com World Grand Prix triumph with another victory over the in-form world No 6.

Van Gerwen defeated top-16 rivals Raymond van Barneveld and Peter Wright en route to the final as well as enjoying victories over James Hubbard, Gerwyn Price, Jamie Caven and Jyhan Artut.

Wade's run to the final had included a 6-3 win over Belgian Kim Huybrechts in a repeat of Saturday's final, while he also whitewashed Terry Jenkins and overcame Paul Amos, Magnus Caris, Darren Webster and Andrew Gilding as he took home £15,000 prize money for the weekend.

Van Gerwen took out tops and double nine to win the opening two legs of the decider, with Wade taking advantage of two misses from the world champion at double eight in leg three as he posted double two to get off the mark, before landing tops to level.

Wade, though, was left waiting on 40 in the next two legs as van Gerwen finished a pair of 14-darters to regain his cushion at 4-2, finished tops to move three legs clear and then sealed victory with a 122 finish.