PETER WRIGHT won his second PDC title in four days at Players Championship 19 in Barnsley on Tuesday.
Fresh from lifting the German Darts Masters trophy for a second time in Cologne on Saturday, Wright picked up where he left off with a string of impressive displays culminating in an 8-5 victory over Justin Pipe in the final.
The opening day of the mid-week ProTour double-header saw Wright post four ton-plus averages, one of which came in his semi-final meeting with World Cup winning teammate Gary Anderson, before going on to claim his first ranking title of 2019.
"I'm still not back to my 2017 level yet, nowhere near in fact, but I'm going to keep working to get back there and this is proof of that," said the world number five, who now has 24 PDC titles to his name.
"I changed darts from the weekend so that I could be more consistent and most of the day I played well to beat some fantastic players.
"It's also good to see Justin reach the final, he's been working very hard to get his game back. He let me off early on and I capitalised."
The final saw Wright get off to a perfect start, kicking in with a 180 en route to landing a crucial break of throw, before the next seven legs all went with throw in a tight contest.
With Wright 5-3 in front, Pipe missed two darts at double, and Wright punished by taking out 65 in two darts for a double-break.
A 121 checkout on the bull saw Wright go within a leg of victory, but Pipe showed resilience to break throw to keep the tie alive at 7-5, only for Wright to find the match-winning double 12 to seal the £10,000 top prize.
Despite defeat in the final, the day was a significant one for six-time ranking event winner Pipe who made it to his first ranking final in over four years with wins over Gerwyn Price and Mensur Suljovic on the way.
Tuesday also saw Kyle Anderson hit a nine-dart finish live on one of the PDC streaming boards in the opening leg of his first round game with Steve Lennon.
Elsewhere, Dutchman Ron Meulenkamp continued his progress by reaching his third ProTour semi-final of 2019.
Wednesday will see the second day of the Players Championship mid-week action in Barnsley, the final event before the 2019 Betfred World Matchplay gets underway on Saturday.
Players Championship 20 will be live streamed simultaneously across two boards on video.pdc.tv, while you can follow fixtures, results and live match stats through Dart Connect.
See full Players Championship 19 results in the Match Centre.
Players Championship 19
Tuesday July 16
The Barnsley Metrodome
Last 16
Gabriel Clemens 6-3 Joe Cullen
Gary Anderson 6-2 Christian Kist
Peter Wright 6-5 Glen Durrant
Vincent van der Voort 6-1 Josh Payne
Justin Pipe 6-3 Mensur Suljovic
Ryan Joyce 6-2 Mark Wilson
Ron Meulenkamp 6-2 Keegan Brown
Harry Ward 6-1 Martin Schindler
Quarter-Finals
Gary Anderson 6-3 Gabriel Clemens
Peter Wright 6-1 Vincent van der Voort
Justin Pipe 6-2 Ryan Joyce
Ron Meulenkamp 6-5 Harry Ward
Semi-Finals
Peter Wright 7-3 Gary Anderson
Justin Pipe 7-4 Ron Meulenkamp
Final
Peter Wright 8-5 Justin Pipe