Van Gerwen and King to fight for World Grand Prix title

Michael van Gerwen

This year’s World Grand Prix final will be contested between Michael van Gerwen and Mervyn King after both players won their semi-final matches in comfortable fashion.

Van Gerwen, who was installed as the favourite for the crown after knocking out world champion Adrian Lewis in the previous round, defeated Wes Newton 5-1, while King ended Brendan Dolan’s dreams of a second consecutive final here in Dublin with a 5-2 victory.

Dutchman Van Gerwen is into his first PDC major final, and it has been an incredible year for him, as 2012 has really seen him come of age, getting to the latter stages of the majors, and now, fighting for the chance to win the World Grand Prix.

Newton, fresh from reaching the final of the European Championship just three weeks ago, hit five maximums in the match and had big checkouts of 152 and 150, but from sticking with Van Gerwen early on, trailing by 1-0 and 2-1, he missed his chance to level the match, and when Van Gerwen took the fourth set to lead 3-1, it all became one-way traffic as he roared to the victory, taking the next two sets in quick time.

“It feels amazing to be in the final,” said Van Gerwen, who won the BDO World Masters when he was just 17 years of age six years ago.

“It's beautiful that I've done so well in a tournament like this, because it's very difficult with the double start.

"I'm very happy that I've played so well, and I think this was my best match in the tournament. My scoring was very good - I have a lot of confidence in my game and I did some damage at the right moments.

"I thought I should have been 2-0 up in sets but Wes finished well. I kept calm though and did a job.

"The crowd have been fantastic and I hope I can continue this because it's a big game tomorrow.”

Van Gerwen’s run to the final has been a tough one, as he has had to get past a former winner in Colin Lloyd, the world champion Lewis, and the world finalist Andy Hamilton, as well as the No.6 seed tonight.

“Adrian Lewis, Wes Newton and Andy Hamilton are fantastic players and they're all in the top ten, and you need to throw well to beat them. I hope I can carry on and do some more damage.

"I'm very happy about this and I hope I can give the crowd and the fans on TV a good game tomorrow,” he added.

Van Gerwen’s opponent will be King after he broke Dolan’s and all of the Irish crowd’s hearts.

King, an experienced campaigner on the main stage, was just too good for Dolan, and despite the latter getting back into the match when he took the third set to make it 2-1, King was excellent, and used all of his experience to block out the partisan crowd in the Citywest Hotel to get the job done.
Unlike Van Gerwen, King has made it to finals before.

He twice was a runner-up in the BDO world championship, and on the PDC lost in the finals of both the Premier League and Players Championship, so he is used to battling for trophies.

But it will take something special to stop an in-form Van Gerwen from landing the trophy.

İsmail Vedat

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