Jose de Sousa won his second Players Championship of 2021 by defeating Michael van Gerwen 8-6 in the final of Tuesday’s event in Milton Keynes.<\/p>\n
The Portuguese star won Players Championship 9 in April, and claimed a further \u00a310,000 title with a superb display in the second of four days in PDC Super Series 4.<\/p>\n
De Sousa’s success also saw him deny Van Gerwen a first title for six months, as the Dutchman’s quest to return to winning ways continued with some outstanding finishing in an enthralling final.<\/p>\n
Van Gerwen did lead 3-2 during the decider, but De Sousa surged into the lead with three straight legs to take an advantage he would not release.<\/p>\n
De Sousa had taken out 120 early in the contest, with Van Gerwen’s 95 finish which featured two double 19s bettered by a sensational 170 checkout in leg nine and combinations of 100 and 112 to keep his hopes alive at 7-6.<\/p>\n
The Dutchman also left 24 in his bid to force a deciding leg, but De Sousa held his nerve with a 108 finish on tops to secure the triumph.<\/p>\n
“I’m very happy to win today,” said De Sousa. “It is an honour to play against a player like Michael. He always tries to make the best game.<\/p>\n
“I’ve shown to the fans and everybody involved in darts that I have the darts to play with these players. For me, it’s really amazing what I’m doing in the PDC, unbelievable.”<\/p>\n
De Sousa had averaged an incredible 127 in his first round win on Monday, and produced a further four ton-plus averages 24 hours later on his way to the title.<\/p>\n
After taking early wins over David Evans and Jamie Hughes, De Sousa came from 5-4 down to defeat Rob Cross and then overcame World Matchplay champion Dimitri Van den Bergh 6-1 with a 105.5 average.<\/p>\n
A see-saw semi-final saw him defeat Gabriel Clemens 7-5, with the German ace coming from 4-0 down to lead 5-4 – landing three successive 13-darters in the process – before the Portuguese regained his range to close out the win.<\/p>\n
Van Gerwen’s route to the final was less problematic, as the three-time World Champion posted 106 averages against Rusty-Jake Rodriguez in round two and in a 7-2 semi-final win over Gary Anderson.<\/p>\n
He also whitewashed Sean Fisher and defeated Luke Humphries, Chris Dobey and Ted Evetts on his way to the decider, in his bid to claim a first title since November’s Players Championship Finals.<\/p>\n
Anderson enjoyed his best run of 2021 as he reached the semi-finals, seeing off Monday’s Players Championship 13 winner Joe Cullen with a 106 average in the last eight.<\/p>\n
Clemens was a ProTour semi-finalist for a third time this year following his run in the second of four Players Championship events this week.<\/p>\n
World Champion Gerwyn Price exited in the first round to Luke Woodhouse, while world number two Peter Wright was a second round casualty against Josh Payne.<\/p>\n
Tuesday’s event also featured two nine-darters, as Jim McEwan and Geert Nentjes achieved perfection in their first round ties with Raymond van Barneveld and Kirk Shepherd respectively.<\/p>\n
Play in PDC Super Series 4 continues on Wednesday with Players Championship 15, which will feature live streaming from two boards via PDCTV throughout the event, which begins at 1400 BST.<\/p>\n
Players Championship 14 Quarter-Finals<\/strong> Semi-Finals<\/strong> Final<\/strong> Jose de Sousa won his second Players Championship of 2021 by defeating Michael van Gerwen 8-6 in the final of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":3357,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[124],"tags":[],"lang":"en","translations":{"de":3359,"en":3356},"pll_sync_post":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pdc.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3356"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pdc.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pdc.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pdc.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pdc.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3356"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pdc.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3356\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3358,"href":"https:\/\/pdc.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3356\/revisions\/3358"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pdc.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3357"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pdc.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pdc.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pdc.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nTuesday June 15, Marshall Arena, Milton Keynes
\nLast 16<\/strong>
\nJoe Cullen 6-4 Scott Mitchell
\nGary Anderson 6-0 Mervyn King
\nMichael van Gerwen 6-3 Chris Dobey
\nTed Evetts 6-5 Ross Smith
\nJose de Sousa 6-5 Rob Cross
\nDimitri Van den Bergh 6-1 Darren Webster
\nGabriel Clemens 6-2 Luke Woodhouse
\nRitchie Edhouse 6-1 Josh Payne<\/p>\n
\nGary Anderson 6-4 Joe Cullen
\nMichael van Gerwen 6-4 Ted Evetts
\nJose de Sousa 6-1 Dimitri Van den Bergh
\nGabriel Clemens 6-4 Ritchie Edhouse<\/p>\n
\nMichael van Gerwen 7-2 Gary Anderson
\nJose de Sousa 7-5 Gabriel Clemens<\/p>\n
\nJose de Sousa 8-6 Michael van Gerwen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"