Gerwyn Price has qualified for the quarter-finals of the
New Zealand Darts Masters. 'The Iceman' defeated home favorite Ben Robb 6-3 in the opening round and now takes on Peter Wright.
Price started the match excellently, but then saw Robb come back to 3-3. He then won three legs in a row to emerge victorious 6-3. "I should've been 3-0 up and then obviously when he get his tail up, he starts scoring with a bit more freedom and confidence and you know he's hitting 140's for fun and then the game just comes a lot easier. I slipped up and kept him in the game. Thankfully after 3-3, he probably could've gone 4-3 up but I think I took that leg and didn't look back," he said to Online Darts.
The 39-year-old Welshman won the Australian Darts Masters last week. "I'm feeling a lot more confident now and even in practice, I feel like the dart is in my hand a bit better, leaving my hand better and going actually where I wanted. The confidence is back and my arm is feeling a lot better. Just going to show that my form is coming back and if you didn't beat me when I was bad, you ain't going to beat me now."
Gerwyn Price in action at the New Zealand Darts Masters
Majors
So Price is already looking forward to the busy year-end calendar with several majors. "I need to win a major, win a European Tour. The ProTour is just there for ranking points, if you don't win them they're just good practice but I want to try to win a major. If I don't win anything and just go at the end of the year and win the World Championship then happy days. I'm sure everyday else who has played really well this year I'd give it up for that."
It is notable that Price, who has already won the tournament three times, is not currently seeded for the Grand Slam of Darts. "If I'm in it, I'm in it. If not, that's the time of year. Me and Beth my wife when we got married we never had a honeymoon so on the other hand if I'm not in it, I've got two weeks where we can go away and celebrate our anniversary."
Price takes on Peter Wright today in the quarterfinals of the New Zealand Darts Masters, who won 6-0 over Daniel Snookes in the opening round.