Weekend Double For Brilliant Anderson

Gary Anderson (Lawrence Lustig, PDC)

GARY ANDERSON completed a brilliant weekend double by claiming victory in Players Championship Four on Sunday by seeing off Jeffrey de Zwaan 6-2 in the final.

The Scot had gone all the way to victory in Saturday's third £75,000 Players Championship of 2018, before completing a perfect weekend 24 hours later.

With Anderson having claimed the Coral UK Open title last weekend in Minehead before sharing the spoils with Daryl Gurney in the Unibet Premier League on Thursday, success at the Barnsley Metrodome extended his unbeaten run to 22 matches.

Having whitewashed World Champion Rob Cross and world number two Peter Wright on his way to Saturday's title, Anderson remained in ruthless mood throughout Sunday's tournament.

Early 6-2 wins over Mark Dudbridge and Tytus Kanik were followed by what would prove to be Anderson's closest win of the day, as he overcame Spain's Cristo Reyes 6-4.

A 6-3 win over Keegan Brown was sandwiched by 6-1 defeats of Rhys Griffin and Dave Chisnall, before Anderson followed up his UK Open Qualifier Four win over De Zwaan by repeating the 6-2 scoreline in the final.

Anderson led 3-0 before the Dutch youngster hit back, but legs of 14 and 11 darts moved the Scot 5-1 up before he eventually closed out a comfortable win.

De Zwaan's run on the day saw him reach his second ProTour final before he was again denied a senior title by Anderson, although he claimed £6,000 for his efforts on the day.

The 21-year-old was taken to a deciding leg three times in his run to Sunday's final, by Vincent van der Voort, Matthew Edgar and Adrian Lewis - who missed three match darts in leg ten of their semi-final.

De Zwaan also overcame John Part, Alan Tabern and Jan Dekker on the day to continue his impressive start to 2018, which also included victory over world number one Michael van Gerwen in last weekend's UK Open.

Lewis was appearing in a semi-final for the second time this year following a run which included a narrow win over UK Open semi-finalist Robert Owen.

Dave Chisnall's semi-final appearance was his best run since last August as he followed up last month's quarter-final in a Players Championship by reaching the last four, whitewashing Ricky Evans along the way.

Quarter-finalists Jan Dekker, Jamie Caven, Stephen Bunting and Keegan Brown all enjoyed their best finishes on the circuit so far this year, but Premier League stars Peter Wright, Simon Whitlock and Daryl Gurney were first round casualties.

The year's Players Championship events continue on March 17-18 with a double-header of £75,000 tournaments at Arena MK in Milton Keynes, with action from two boards to be streamed live for PDCTV-HD Subscribers at www.pdc.tv.

See full results in the Match Centre at THIS LINK.

Players Championship Four
Sunday March 11, Barnsley Metrodome
Last 16

Jan Dekker 6-5 Rowby-John Rodriguez
Jeffrey de Zwaan 6-4 Alan Tabern
Jamie Caven 6-5 Luke Woodhouse
Adrian Lewis 6-3 Josh Payne
Stephen Bunting 6-0 Adam Hunt
Dave Chisnall 6-0 Ricky Evans
Gary Anderson 6-1 Rhys Griffin
Keegan Brown 6-4 Darren Webster

Quarter-Finals
Jeffrey de Zwaan 6-1 Jan Dekker
Adrian Lewis 6-2 Jamie Caven
Dave Chisnall 6-4 Stephen Bunting
Gary Anderson 6-3 Keegan Brown

Semi-Finals
Jeffrey de Zwaan 6-5 Adrian Lewis
Gary Anderson 6-1 Dave Chisnall

Final
Gary Anderson 6-2 Jeffrey de Zwaan