"It’s not like I played rubbish" - Dave Chisnall not letting poor form affect him on stage after resurging campaign in German Darts Championship

After eight consecutive opening match exits in the European Tour, Dave Chisnall has enjoyed a change of fortune in the German Darts Championship as he defeated Ricky Evans 6-2 to reach the quarter-finals.

After taking the first leg, Chizzy took out 79 enroute to going 3-0 lead before missing a number of darts to 4-0 ahead as Evans got a leg on the board. Chisnall would get back on track with a clinical 82 checkout before charging into a 5-1 lead. Evans broke to keep the tie alive but Chizzy had no problem in sealing up victory, making it to his first quarter-final since the opening European Tour event of the year in Wieze, Belgium.

It sounds good. There was a lot of pressure on me yesterday to beat Gabriel [Clemens], but I got the job done," Chisnall said in an interview with Dartsnews.com after the match. "It’s just baby steps. I know I’m playing okay, but people think they’re playing better than me — so yeah, baby steps. I won again today. I didn’t play very well, but neither did he, so job done."

He even got over a problem with his eye in the match. "Yeah, it’s gone now. It was like a leg and a half where it was just stuck in the corner — couldn’t get out," he said. "I even dipped my fingers in the water by accident; I thought it was my table! But yeah, that’s what it is."

Despite losing nine European Tour matches on the bounce, Chisnall was still finding the positives from the alarming results, admitting that he had come into some great performances while playing some good darts himself.

"It’s not been too hard, to be fair, because I’ve been playing quite well," Chisnall said. "It’s not like I played rubbish. The last four times I played before yesterday were all 100+, 100+, 100+, 100+, and the others were around 97 to 99 averages — but they just played better, so they deserved to win."

It was crucial he broke the streak to reach Dortmund, with him set to feature in the European Championships for the 14th time. "Yeah, I’m very happy. We travel 14 weeks out of the year to come to these Euro Tours, and luckily it’s paid off — that’s the main thing," Chisnall said. "When I missed the Grand Prix, I just put a bit more time in at home, and that worked. It’s paid off yesterday and today."

A tough test in the form of Krzysztof Ratajski awaits Chisnall in the final, who also confirmed his place in Dortmund with a solid showing in his three games so far. Chizzy is expecting a challenging match this evening if his previous meetings are anything to go off.

"Well, every time I play Krzysztof, he batters me!" Chisnall said. "I’ll just play whoever I play — let the best man win, have a good game, and we’ll see tonight."