MVG and Wade recover to reach third round

Michael van Gerwen bounced back from 2-0 down to see off Steve West with a 108 average in Minehead. The Dutchman survived darts to go 3-0 down in the Players Championship Finals second round tie, but never looked back as he posted one of the top ten averages in the tournament's history. West will rue his missed doubles, but van Gerwen's ferocious scoring and ruthless finishing made a shock win very unlikely.
The shock was almost on meanwhile on board two, but James Wade recovered to defeat Jamie Caven 6-4. 'Jabba', having suffered awful form in 2017, stunned Joe Cullen yesterday, and went 3-0 up as he looked to repeat the trick. Yet Caven is not renowned for performing in majors, and faltered when throwing for the fourth leg. Wade had been wasteful early on, but found his feet and will face John Henderson or Ian White in the third round.
Giant-killer Mickey Mansell failed to keep his Players Championship Finals run going as the Northern Irishman fell to a 6-3 defeat against Jermaine Wattimena. The Dutchman was highly impressive in a 6-0 thrashing of Keegan Brown yesterday, and again outperformed his opponent with a 97 average. But Mansell notched two 101 checkouts to keep himself in the running, once to make it 1-1 and again to make it 3-3. Wattimena raced clear from there, however, grabbing the all-important break in the eighth leg. And, despite bizarrely hitting single 13 when needing double 18 for the match, Wattimena was able to close out the win.
In a clash between two former BDO world champions, Steve Beaton continue his run with a 6-4 victory over Jelle Klaasen. The pair were well-matched throughout, but it was a story of chances taken and missed. Klaasen could have broken Beaton's throw when 4-3 up, and missed darts at double 20, double 10 and double 5; the 'Adonis' made no mistake in checking out in the ninth leg. Klaasen failed to show the same blistering scoring that saw him defeat Alan Norris in a classic yesterday, and so Beaton will take on Wattimena next.
https://twitter.com/OfficialPDC/status/934458125045858304