2022 World Matchplay Final Preview - Gerwyn Price v Michael van Gerwen
PDCSunday, 24 July 2022 at 17:44
32 players came but only two remain as the PDC World Matchplay will conclude for 2022 on Sunday evening at the magnificent Winter Gardens in Blackpool.
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It is the final that was heavily mooted and discussed despite Dimitri van den Bergh and Danny Noppert potentially paying heed to the excitement.
But both Michael van Gerwen and Gerwyn Price did their bit sealing semi-final wins on Saturday night of differing quality. It has been the story of the tournament for two finalists in a way.
Price has roared through and will likely head into the final as a potential slight favourite due to his displays this week. He started off averaging 99 in a narrow win over Martin Schindler 10-8 before taking out Dave Chisnall 11-8.
It was the latter stage wins that began to show towards his A game with a 104 average against Jose de Sousa in a thrilling 16-14 win before he sealed perfection with a nine-dart finish and a comprehensive 17-11 success over Danny Noppert averaging 102.
Slowly 'The Iceman' who has never reached the final of this tournament and has not been a happy hunting ground in the past has began to find form that has deserted him at times especially through the Premier League which he admitted he wasn't a fan of in terms of the new format.
But one player who you could say was is Van Gerwen who stormed to his first major success after a long barren spell by his standards last month in Berlin and could add a title which has eluded him since 2016.
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He hadn't reached the final even since then with shock defeats and last year a semi-final loss to Peter Wright. He has admitted himself throughout the week that he is not at his best owing that to surgery on Carpal Tunnel Syndrome with his relatively quick return a miracle in itself.
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But despite only averaging over a ton once in this tournament, it is ominous as usual for the rest of the field and in this case Price that he is winning with his B or C game and is finding the luck of the green, something which has deserted him during his barren spell.
Opening success against Adrian Lewis was followed by victories over a poor Joe Cullen, edging past Nathan Aspinall and having a late surge against Van den Bergh. It could yet play into Price's hands in terms of the closeness of his wins or MVG could fire into Beast Mode and leave Price no chance at all.
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As usual between this two, it is must watch tantalising tungsten of the highest variety and over the best of 35 legs, either a new champion or a returning winner for the first time in a few years will be crowned in Blackpool.
Samuel GillChief Content Officer
Samuel Gill is the Chief Content Officer (CCO) of DartsNews.com, a role he has held since 2020. He is responsible for editorial governance across the platform, including setting content standards, overseeing accuracy and consistency, and guiding long-term editorial strategy across professional darts coverage. Since joining, he has contributed more than 10,000 articles and editorial pieces, playing a central role in the development and daily operation of the site.
Based in Leicester, Samuel has extensive experience in darts media and has been closely involved in coverage of the professional darts circuit for several years. Within the UK darts community, he is a recognised figure known for his consistent editorial output and ongoing reporting on major tournaments and developments across the PDC calendar.
In his current role, Samuel works closely with editors and writers to ensure content meets clear journalistic standards, with a focus on source verification, editorial consistency, and timely updates when new, confirmed information becomes available.
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- Not much of a tournament really,is it? Now they've all pulled out,it's open for everyone. I'm sure if you bought tickets,you'd be disappointed. Doesn't that seem to bother the withdrawals? Not at all!!rick6710-09-2026
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- I mean look, Littler's picture is first,wattimena is second and he won! Level it up. I know littler is fantastic,but the sport was here before him,and will be when he's retired. Any player in the top 64/128 can beat each other,it's not big news. Poor Jermaine,wins it,and not even the headline!!rick6726-08-2026
- I appreciate that littler is a fantastic player,but the top 3 articles are about him. Before he'd thrown a dart in the tournament. Level it out a bit, Taylor and van gerwen soon got disliked as the media could only see them,and nobody else seemed to matterrick6725-08-2026
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- The two-point Lucky Loser qualifiers are Ross Smith, Robb, Whitlock, Sakai, Ilagan and Toylo. Jermaine is not on the entries list on Dartconnect for the TCH qualifier so the four from the main OoM are probably Searle, Nijman, Dobey, Wattimena.Scoobedybop24-08-2026
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