Gerwyn Price and Michael van Gerwen will clash in a high-profile quarter-final at the Cazoo European Championship after dominating their second round ties in Salzburg on Saturday.<\/p>\n
World Champion Price cruised into the quarter-finals with a 10-3 defeat of Czech teenager Adam Gawlas, coming from 2-0 down to power to victory.<\/p>\n
Van Gerwen, meanwhile, won the clash of former European Champions with James Wade 10-4 to continue his challenge for a fifth title in the event.<\/p>\n
Sunday’s final day of action at the Salzburgarena will also see 2019 European Championship winner Rob Cross, Grand Slam of Darts winner Jose de Sousa, Austrian favourite Mensur Suljovic and in-form Danny Noppert also in action after they won through an action-packed second round day.<\/p>\n
World number one Price, who won both European Tour events held in 2021, could only watch on as emerging star Gawlas opened their tie with a 12-darter before doubling his lead.<\/p>\n
Finishes of 119 and 116 from Price sparked his performance as he levelled, winning five straight legs before Gawlas hit back.<\/p>\n
However, Price took out an outstanding ten-dart leg – which featured two 177 scores – in another five-leg burst to seal his quarter-final place.<\/p>\n
“It was a really slow start but he flew out of the blocks in the first two legs, and the 119 was a big shot,” said Price, the runner-up to Cross two years ago.<\/p>\n
“From being 2-0 down I won ten of the next 11 legs, and for most of that game I played really well – but I need to up that again and take it into tomorrow.”<\/p>\n
Van Gerwen, meanwhile, knocked out 2018 champion Wade as the Dutchman came from a leg down to win five in a row and take command of their contest.<\/p>\n
Wade pulled back to 8-4 as he sought a route back into the tie with finishes of 88 and 142, but missed doubles in the next two legs allowed Van Gerwen to close out the win.<\/p>\n
“It was comfortable but I made too many mistakes,” said Van Gerwen. “Overall I can’t really complain and a win is a win, but I know I’ve got more in the tank and I have to show that tomorrow.<\/p>\n
“I hit too many low scores between good scores, but I won and that’s the most important thing. I know there’s more to come.”<\/p>\n
Van Gerwen defeated Price last November on his way to winning his most recent ranking title, at the Players Championship Finals, and is hoping to repeat the feat on Sunday.<\/p>\n
“It’s going to be a tough game against Gerwyn tomorrow,” said Van Gerwen. “We always have good games and I’m looking forward to it.<\/p>\n
“I’ve won most of the games we’ve had but I need to concentrate on my own game because we all know what I’m capable of. My form has started to change and I feel good.”<\/p>\n
Cross and De Sousa will meet in another tasty quarter-final after they enjoyed contrasting wins on Saturday afternoon over Brendan Dolan and Luke Humphries respectively.<\/p>\n
Cross took the opening four legs to assume control of his contest, finishing 124 on the bull in the process, and despite an 11-darter from Dolan he extended the advantage to 6-1.<\/p>\n
Dolan responded with back-to-back legs, but an 11-darter from Cross stemmed the tide before the Hastings ace closed out the win with a 76 finish.<\/p>\n
“I played steady and thought I was clinical at certain times, but I let a few legs go,” reflected Cross.<\/p>\n
“My game’s really good at the minute, I’m enjoying the game and it’s a massive difference to where I’ve been for the last 18 months, but I’ll keep trying.<\/p>\n
“It’s nice to start making inroads to where I think I should be for my ability. I don’t think that I’ve got to get better to win, I’ve just got to get back to where I was.”<\/p>\n
De Sousa, meanwhile, defied five ton-plus checkouts from Humphries to claim a 10-8 win following an entertaining contest.<\/p>\n
Humphries had opened the tie with a 130 finish, but found himself 3-1 down and facing a 5-3 deficit when he took out 104 in leg nine.<\/p>\n
The tenth leg proved pivotal as Humphries wired the bull for a 170 finish which would have levelled the game, before then having to watch on as De Sousa took out 123 on the middle double to regain breathing space at 6-4.<\/p>\n
Humphries also missed double 18 to finish 156 in the next leg, and De Sousa moved 8-4 up before Humphries finished 106, 146 and 160 to claim three of the next four, while a 74 checkout kept him in the tie at 9-8 before the Portuguese ace finally closed out the win.<\/p>\n
“It’s amazing for me to make the quarter-finals here,” said De Sousa. “Playing against Luke is always difficult – he has such talent.<\/p>\n
“The 123 was a special moment from the Special One! I think it was crucial. I’m very happy that I’m through and I hope in the next round I can play my best game.”<\/p>\n
Noppert’s brilliant form continued as he finished ten doubles from 16 attempts to defeat Ryan Searle 10-6, booking a spot in a second successive televised quarter-final.<\/p>\n
The Dutchman impressed in his first round win over Krzysztof Ratajski, and pulled clear from three-all to win seven of the next eight legs in another confident display.<\/p>\n
Searle had hit back from 2-0 down with a 108 finish to level in leg four, and followed a Noppert 11-darter with a second 13-dart finish of the tie in leg six.<\/p>\n
Noppert, though, regained the lead, punished three misses from Searle to lead 5-3 and then took out a brilliant 170 checkout before moving 8-3 up.<\/p>\n
Searle responded, but Noppert quickly ended any hopes of a fightback by landing double 18 and then tops to move into the last eight.<\/p>\n
“It was a really good performance again,” said Noppert, a World Grand Prix semi-finalist last week. “I’m playing really well at the moment and enjoying my darts.<\/p>\n
“Ryan is a really good player but he missed some doubles and I hit mine – the 170 finish was really good.<\/p>\n
“I’m feeling great, really confident at the moment, and looking forward to every game.”<\/p>\n
Noppert now plays Nathan Aspinall after the UK Open finalist won a high-quality tie with Damon Heta 10-6 as both players averaged over 100.<\/p>\n
Heta opened with back-to-back 13-darters and also took out 104 as he led 3-2, but Aspinall turned the game with four straight legs, and defied checkouts of 127 and 141 from the Australian to secure his last eight spot.<\/p>\n
“I really enjoyed it and it’s a fantastic win against a great opponent,” said Aspinall. “I felt really good tonight.<\/p>\n
“The 141 to stay in the match and the 104 finish showed bottle and what a fantastic player he is, but I had a job to do and I was really happy with how I performed.<\/p>\n
“The practice is paying off and I felt so at home up there, I felt back like I felt two years ago. I was buzzing, the adrenaline was pumping and the crowd were fantastic. <\/p>\n
“I’ve got Danny Noppert next and he’s playing unreal darts at the moment. I need to perform at that level tomorrow, and if I do then I’ll be hard to beat.”<\/p>\n
Mensur Suljovic delighted the Austrian crowd as he won a thriller against Germany’s Florian Hempel 10-9 in a dramatic deciding leg.<\/p>\n
Emerging star Hempel responded to Suljovic’s opening 136 finish by taking a 2-1 lead, only for the 2016 finalist to win five of the next six to take command at 6-3.<\/p>\n
Hempel finished 124 as he pulled back to 7-5, and when Suljovic missed four match darts after opening up a 9-7 cushion, the tie went to a one-leg shoot-out.<\/p>\n
Suljovic was first to a finish, and produced a superb third-dart double top to book his spot in the last eight.<\/p>\n
“I couldn’t see if the last dart was in but it’s a brilliant feeling,” said Suljovic. “I gave it my best and I played good darts. I’m feeling good and I’m so happy.<\/p>\n
“I won my last tournament in Austria [at a European Tour event in 2019] and I will give it my best tomorrow. The crowd is brilliant and I have nothing to lose.”<\/p>\n
Suljovic now faces Joe Cullen, who won through to his second European Championship quarter-final with a 10-5 defeat of Willie Borland – coming from 3-2 down to surge to victory.<\/p>\n
Cullen took out a superb 147 amongst three straight legs to push himself 5-3 up, and he defied a 116 finish from Scottish youngster Borland to progress.<\/p>\n
“I started a little bit slowly but I felt if I imposed myself on the game that I’d come out at the other end as a winner,” said Cullen.<\/p>\n
“I felt like my experience would always show in the end. Willie’s a brilliant player on the floor but it takes a lot to bring your floor game to the stage.<\/p>\n
“I did more than enough to win the game. I tried to keep on top of him because I couldn’t afford to get complacent.”<\/p>\n
Cullen was a semi-finalist in the 2018 tournament, but is now aiming to claim his first televised title on Sunday – which could move him into the world’s top ten should he be victorious.<\/p>\n
“I realise I’m in a favourable half of the draw but I’ve still got to go up there and win,” said Cullen, who is now guaranteed \u00a320,000 from the event.<\/p>\n
“It’s a big jump prize-money wise and \u00a310,000 is a lot of money, so I knew it was an important win for me.”<\/p>\n
The \u00a3500,000 tournament concludes on Sunday, with the afternoon session’s quarter-finals followed in the decisive evening session by the semi-finals and final, with a \u00a3120,000 top prize on offer.<\/p>\n
2021 Cazoo European Championship Evening Session Sunday October 17 Evening Session (2000 local time, 1900 BST) Gerwyn Price and Michael van Gerwen will clash in a high-profile quarter-final at the Cazoo European Championship after dominating their…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":3852,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[124],"tags":[],"lang":"en","translations":{"de":3854,"en":3851},"pll_sync_post":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pdc.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3851"}],"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=3851"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/pdc.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3851\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3858,"href":"https:\/\/pdc.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3851\/revisions\/3858"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pdc.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3852"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pdc.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pdc.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pdc.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nSaturday October 16
\nAfternoon Session
\nSecond Round x4<\/strong>
\nJoe Cullen 10-5 William Borland
\nRob Cross 10-4 Brendan Dolan
\nJose de Sousa 10-8 Luke Humphries
\nDanny Noppert 10-4 Ryan Searle<\/p>\n
\nSecond Round x4<\/strong>
\nNathan Aspinall 10-6 Damon Heta
\nGerwyn Price 10-3 Adam Gawlas
\nMichael van Gerwen 10-4 James Wade
\nMensur Suljovic 10-9 Florian Hempel<\/p>\n
\nAfternoon Session (1345 local time, 1245 BST)
\nQuarter-Finals<\/strong>
\nDanny Noppert v Nathan Aspinall
\nGerwyn Price v Michael van Gerwen
\nRob Cross v Jose de Sousa
\nMensur Suljovic v Joe Cullen<\/p>\n
\nSemi-Finals<\/strong>
\nPrice\/Van Gerwen v Noppert\/Aspinall
\nSuljovic\/Cullen v Cross\/De Sousa<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"