Tomorrow's World Grand Prix darts final will see Mervyn King do battle with 'Mighty' Michael Van Gerwen. The Dutchman will be participating in his first televised major final whilst King broke Irish hearts by taking out Brendan Dolan.
The night began with Van Gerwen against Wes Newton, the only seeded player left in the tournament. Despite the scoreline not being very close, the sets most definitely were. The match kicked off in emphatic style with Newton checking out 150. Van Gerwen followed that by finishing 136 to take a 2-1 lead before taking the set on the final dart.
The highlight of the second set was Newton finishing 89 on the bull to take a 2-1 lead. This set also went into a deciding leg which the Warrior won to level the match. A 152-checkout from Newton made it 2-2 in the third set but a 104-checkout from the Dutchman meant he would take a 2-1 lead.
Newton then took a 2-1 lead in the fourth set but disaster struck as a contact lens looked to have shifted out of place and caused the Fleetwood man some discomfort. This inevitably hampered his throw as his sight must have been lessened and it allowed Van Gerwen to win three straight legs and take a 3-1 lead. It would typical then Van Gerwen stepped it up a gear while Newton was suffering, he took full advantage by winning the fifth set without conceding to make it 4-1. The Dutchman would make it seven consecutive legs to take a 2-0 lead in the sixth set before finally winning it 3-1 to claim a 5-1 victory over Newton.
With knowledge that he was in the final, Van Gerwen could sit back and enjoy the encounter between King and Dolan. As expected, the partisan crowd tried their best to put King off his stroke whilst trying to stir Dolan to victory. It certainly worked to begin with as Dolan surged into the a 2-0 lead. But King, a la against Thornton yesterday, battled back to take the set 3-2 and silence the audience.
Dolan did win the opening leg of the second set which livened the crowd up a bit but only to be silenced once more as King took the set 3-1 to double his advantage. The Northern Irishman made another attempt at getting back into the game and the crowd singing his name. He dominated the third set and took the third leg with a gigantic 170-checkout to put himself within a set of King.
It became four opening legs in a row that Dolan would win but that would be the only leg he would win in the fourth set as King regained his two set advantage. An 84-finish via the bull put Dolan 2-1 ahead in the fifth set on his quest to keeping in touch with King. But King was still having none of it and again managed to fight back to win the set 3-2 and go within a set of victory.
Dolan wasn't finished and did delay the inevitable somewhat. Again the Irishman went 2-1 only to see King level but this time Dolan held on to take the set 3-2 and reduce the deficit. This only seemed to anger the former Premier League star and went on a rampage in the seventh and final leg. He secured a Shanghai-108 finish to make it 2-0 before sealing the victory with a classy 132-checkout, setting up a mouth watering final against the 23-year old Dutchman.
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