{"id":2072,"date":"2024-07-20T03:56:40","date_gmt":"2024-07-20T03:56:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/world-matchplay-michael-van-gerwen-fights-back-against-andrew-gilding-to-reach-semi-finals\/"},"modified":"2024-07-20T03:56:40","modified_gmt":"2024-07-20T03:56:40","slug":"world-matchplay-michael-van-gerwen-fights-back-against-andrew-gilding-to-reach-semi-finals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/world-matchplay-michael-van-gerwen-fights-back-against-andrew-gilding-to-reach-semi-finals\/","title":{"rendered":"World Matchplay: Michael van Gerwen fights back against Andrew Gilding to reach semi-finals"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Michael van Gerwen clinched his place in the semi-finals of the World Matchplay in Blackpool with a gritty 16-10 win over Andrew Gilding.<\/b><\/p>\n

The world number two from the Netherlands started slowly against Gilding before an eight-leg winning streak swung the contest his way.<\/p>\n

Van Gerwen turned an 8-6 deficit into 14-8 lead as the Englishman struggled to find a response at the Winter Gardens in Blackpool.<\/p>\n

“Everyone knows to play him [Gilding], it’s tough. He is very slow, and sometimes a bit boring to play,” Van Gerwen told Sky Sports.<\/p>\n

“But what a darts player. You need to always make sure you are on top of your game. I know I can do a lot better.”<\/p>\n

Gilding, playing in the quarter-finals at the Winter Gardens for the first time, set the early pace with a 148 checkout in the third leg – the highest of the match.<\/p>\n

Van Gerwen, who knocked teenager Luke Littler<\/a> out of the tournament in the first round, found himself 6-3 down against the 53-year-old as he struggled for rhythm.<\/p>\n

But the Dutchman nailed a 136 checkout to move within a leg of his opponent at 8-7 down as he embarked on a match-defining streak.<\/p>\n

Gilding rallied towards the end but it was too late and 35-year-old Van Gerwen sealed victory with an 80 checkout on double tops.<\/p>\n

Van Gerwen averaged 96.99 as he threw 100-plus 34 times during the match but was left irked by a double success rate of only 30%.<\/p>\n

He added: “I missed too many doubles, it was hard. My doubles, I’m not happy with at all but overall I won and that’s the most important thing. In the end, I think I found another gear.”<\/p>\n

In the last four, Van Gerwen will play Michael Smith, who cruised to a 16-7 win over English compatriot Rob Cross.<\/p>\n

Smith powered into an 8-2 lead and never really looked back as a Cross frequently squandered legs which seemed to be his for the taking, missing 27 doubles.<\/p>\n

“Rob’s doubles were non-existent early on. If he’s not going to take them, then I will. He was having three darts at doubles and not getting close,” Smith said.<\/p>\n

“It’s a tough game against Van Gerwen next, so I have to step up.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n


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Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Michael van Gerwen clinched his place in the semi-finals of the World Matchplay in Blackpool with a gritty 16-10 win over Andrew Gilding. The world number two from the Netherlands started slowly against Gilding before an eight-leg winning streak swung the contest his way. Van Gerwen turned an 8-6 deficit into 14-8 lead as the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2073,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2072","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-top-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2072","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2072"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2072\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2074,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2072\/revisions\/2074"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2073"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}