Dutchman faces Chris Dobey in last four after 5-3 winRydz wins more legs and has higher average in loss
They call 1 January the greatest day in the darting calendar. Come back in another 364 days to see if there’s been a better match than this. Michael van Gerwen is a world championship semi-finalist again, beating Callan Rydz 5-3, and even if the bare facts of the transaction feel unremarkable enough, then rarely, if ever, will he have been pushed, challenged, interrogated than he was by the likeable Geordie here.
Rydz, perhaps the outstanding performer in this tournament to this point, was magnificent, outdoing the great Van Gerwen on almost every conceivable metric. He won 18 legs to 17. He averaged 104 to Van Gerwen’s 103. He edged checkouts 46% to 45%. He hit 17 180s to Van Gerwen’s 14, at a rate of almost one every other leg. He showed bottle beyond belief, levelling at 1-1, again at 2-2, then pulling one back to trail 4-3 when everyone assumed Van Gerwen would cruise to victory.
About Author
More Stories
Wayne Rooney the manager can’t escape his man-cave or his luminous teenage past | Barney Ronay
Hubert Hurkacz gives Poland early edge over Kazakhstan in United Cup semi-final
‘My call’: India captain Rohit Sharma insists he was not axed for fifth Test