Battling Van den Bergh denies Lewis for PC24 triumph

Dimitri Van den Bergh (Lawrence Lustig, PDC)

Dimitri Van den Bergh made a remarkable comeback from 4-0 down to win his second ProTour title of 2021 with an 8-5 defeat of Adrian Lewis in Tuesday's Players Championship 24 final.

Two-time World Champion Lewis had looked on course to win his first tournament since March 2019 when he pulled clear in the early stages of the decider.

Van den Bergh, though, claimed eight of the next nine legs to scoop the £10,000 title in the first of four Players Championship events forming PDC Super Series 7 this week.

An astounding standard saw Van den Bergh average over 100 in six of his seven matches on the day, which began with wins over Boris Koltsov, Andrew Gilding and Vincent van der Voort.

He then defeated Chris Dobey 6-1 and overcame European Champion Rob Cross 6-2 in the quarter-finals with an average of almost 110.

Van den Bergh then claimed a 7-2 win over Kim Huybrechts in their all-Belgian semi-final before producing a classy fightback in the decider.

"I just feel very lucky that I managed to win my second title this year," said Van den Bergh.

"I felt like I wasn't playing well [in the final] but I managed to come back. I still had a 100 average in the final and it didn't feel like that.

"Today my finishing helped me through. I never gave up, I kept digging in and my finishing was strong.

"I'm proud but I'll get my feet back on the ground because tomorrow is another day. I'm going to work hard because you can never underestimate anybody."

Lewis won the final's first four legs, landing two 12-darters and a 121 finish in the process, before Van den Bergh hit back in leg five.

The Belgian then fired in a ten-darter before Lewis moved 5-2 up, but a 12-darter sparked a run of six straight legs which swept Van den Bergh to victory.

Lewis was appearing in his first final since March 2019, when he overcame Raymond van Barneveld, and showed both quality and resilience in his six wins at the Barnsley Metrodome.

Three of his matches in the early rounds went to a deciding leg, as he prevailed against Luke Woodhouse, Michael Smith and Callan Rydz - in a clash where both players averaged 106.

He also saw off Ryan Searle 6-2 in the quarter-finals and averaged 100 in his 7-4 semi-final defeat of Dave Chisnall.

Both Chisnall and Huybrechts reached their first ProTour semi-finals of 2021 on Tuesday, while Searle defied a 107 average from Van Gerwen to reach the quarter-finals.

The day also featured two nine-dart legs, with both Nathan Aspinall and Callan Rydz achieving perfection - although both subsequently went on to lose the game.

PDC Super Series 7 continues on Wednesday with Players Championship 25 from 1200 BST, with streaming coverage at PDCTV coming from two boards simultaneously.

PDCTV subscription options include a £1.99 One-Day Pass or a £2.99 Two-Day Pass.

See full results in the Match Centre.

See match stats through DartConnect.

Players Championship 24
Tuesday October 19
Last 16
Kim Huybrechts 6-4 Martin Schindler
Mickey Mansell 6-1 Mervyn King
Dimitri Van den Bergh 6-1 Chris Dobey
Rob Cross 6-3 Mike De Decker
Krzysztof Ratajski 6-5 Jose de Sousa
Dave Chisnall 6-2 Nick Kenny
Adrian Lewis 6-5 Callan Rydz
Ryan Searle 6-3 Michael van Gerwen

Quarter-Finals
Kim Huybrechts 6-3 Mickey Mansell
Dimitri Van den Bergh 6-2 Rob Cross
Dave Chisnall 6-5 Krzysztof Ratajski
Adrian Lewis 6-2 Ryan Searle

Semi-Finals
Dimitri Van den Bergh 7-2 Kim Huybrechts
Adrian Lewis 7-4 Dave Chisnall

Final
Dimitri Van den Bergh 8-5 Adrian Lewis

Nine-Darters!
Nathan Aspinall achieved a nine-dart finish during his first round game with Keegan Brown.
Callan Rydz hit a second nine-darter of the day during his fourth round game with Adrian Lewis.