MICHAEL VAN GERWEN extended his remarkable record in last-leg deciders on the PDC European Tour on his way to the German Darts Open title on Sunday.
The World Champion claimed his third European Tour victory in four events so far this year by defeating Ian White 8-3 in the final in Saarbruecken.
However, his route through the tournament proved both problematic and to show his mettle in deciding legs.
Having defeated Dimitri Van den Bergh 6-1 in a below-par second round opener on Saturday, Van Gerwen would be taken to a deciding leg in his first three of four games on Sunday.
He firstly overcame Raymond van Barneveld 6-5 in the third round, with the veteran star hitting back from 5-3 down to take the game all the way only for a 15-dart break of throw - ended with a 114 finish - to see Van Gerwen progress.
An outstanding quarter-final tie with Nathan Aspinall saw Van Gerwen this time hit back from 5-4 down to win, taking out 135 in leg ten and a 14-darter - again against the throw - as he survived one missed match dart from the UK Open champion.
The best-of-13 leg semi-final with Dave Chisnall also went all the way, as the St Helens ace missed four match darts before Van Gerwen took out 90 for a 12-darter sealed victory.
Van Gerwen has now won 23 consecutive deciding legs on the ProTour in a staggering run which began at the 2015 Gibraltar Darts Trophy against Kevin Painter.
Remarkably, only ONE of those legs has seen Van Gerwen throw more than 15 darts - a 16-darter against Dyson Parody in Gibraltar in 2016.
Van Gerwen has also survived a match dart on just six occasions during those 23 matches, and taken out six ton-plus finishes of his own and won 12 legs against the throw.
Van Gerwen's victory in the German Darts Open saw him win a third European Tour title from four events played so far this year.
The Dutchman has now claimed 26 consecutive victories in the extended best-of-13 and best-of-15 leg formats for the semi-finals and final of European Tour and Players Championship events.
He has also won 24 consecutive ProTour finals since the 2017 European Darts Grand Prix, where Peter Wright claimed a rare 6-0 win over the world number one.
Stats courtesy Christopher Kempf - follow @Ochepedia on Twitter.