Gary Anderson will face off against Gerwyn Price on Sunday evening as the 2021 PDC
World Darts Championship concludes and ahead of the best of 13 sets encounter, DartsNews takes a look at his route to the final and statistics.
Anderson began his campaign as a seeded player in the Last 64 facing off against Madars Razma which he won through 3-1 but despite the one sided scoreline, the Latvian had the chance to make it 2-2 in sets which could have changed the destiny of the Flying Scotsman.
A familiar foe awaited the two-time back-to-back World Champion in Mensur Suljovic who he faced in one of the best finals of the modern era at the 2018 World Matchplay.
He is known not to like facing 'The Gentle' and this was even more apparent in this tie with 'Tablegate' being coined and Anderson getting annoyed at Suljovic's slow pace.
He won through 4-3 but it was his post match interview which was the main story with the Scot calling it a 'joke of a match' and revealing he'd rather play golf if that's how darts is going to be played.
This sparked criticism from Sky Sports pundits Wayne Mardle and Rod Harrington with Anderson easing past Devon Petersen but not mincing his words in the aftermath levied at the duo. This even prompted Anderson to say that any potential retirement thoughts were diminished due to the comments.
This made Anderson's performances go up in tandem with 'The Flying Scotsman' going from 95.55 in the last 16 to 101.07 in his Quarter-Final win over Dirk van Duijvenbode.
It went down but only a tad to 100.03 against Dave Chisnall who famously conquered Michael van Gerwen but became the latest player to succumb to the so called curse of losing the following round.
In a year that Anderson says he is going to start from scratch in and his injuries despite not hampering him as much still not sorted, he could become a three-time World Champion and despite not being at his best, the improvement in the game has been self evident but can he defeat another familiar foe in Gerwyn Price on Sunday evening?
In statistics below provided by DartsTracker, his tournament average is up at 97.41 while his first nine average sits at 107.54.
His finishing percentage can still be improved at 39.36% but 11 ton plus finishes have shown that he has claimed the big legs when he has to.
Tournament Average: 97.41
First 9-dart average: 107.54
180's: 33
Doubles: 39.36% (74/188)
100+ checkouts: 11