The first man into the final at the World Series of Darts Finals in Amsterdam is Michael van Gerwen. The Dutchman prevailed against Luke Humphries 11-10 in an instant classic, hitting a nine-darter en route.
As you might expect the crowd was heavily in favour of Van Gerwen and 'Mighty Mike' was a man on a mission. After taking the opening leg with a ruthless two-dart 100 checkout, Van Gerwen struck perfection leg 2 with a stunning nine-dart leg. Humphries finally got off the mark in leg 3 and courtesy of a brilliant 116 checkout, 'Cool Hand Luke' headed off stage 3-2 behind.
The standard continued to be incredibly high after the break and despite Van Gerwen averaging around 115, Humphries wasn't letting him run away with it. A stunning 164 checkout from the Englishman helping him hold his throw and stay close at 5-4. Despite a couple of missed darts in the tenth leg, Van Gerwen was able to secure it to lead 6-4 at the second interval.
As the players returned to the stage, Humphries was again scrapping to stay in the tie. After taking the first leg session, Humphries wired the bull to level. When Van Gerwen couldn't punish however, Humphries nailed double 8 and did indeed level the game. Taking a third straight leg, Humphries then moved ahead at 7-6. Stopping the rot, Van Gerwen held throw in leg 14, but the momentum was with Humphries and he pinned double 8 to lead 8-7 at the last interval.
As things began to get nervous, both players missed numerous darts at double for the 16th leg, Van Gerwen eventually taking it to level. Neither player was really cracking but more and more missed darts were creeping into the match and after Van Gerwen missed chances in leg 19, Humphries was the man to move within a leg of victory at 10-9.
To stay in the tournament, Van Gerwen needed 55 but after he missed two darts, Humphries then saw three match darts come and go allowing the Dutchman to return and send us to a deciding leg. In the decider both players kicked off with a 180,
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