DELIGHT FOR DIMITRI! 🇧🇪 Dimitri Van den Bergh's love affair with the World Matchplay continues! The Belgian perfectly times his sprint to the finish line to defeat Peter Wright in a Winter Gardens epic! #WMDarts | QF 📺 bit.ly/WM22HowToWatch
Revenge for Van den Bergh with victory over Wright in repeat of 2021 World Matchplay final as semi-final spot sealed in Blackpool
PDCThursday, 21 July 2022 at 22:50
Dimitri van den Bergh is the first player into the semi-finals of this year's World Matchplay after defeating Peter Wright 16-14 in revenge for 'The Dreammaker' after losing in last year's final to the defending champion.
Van den Bergh is into a third consecutive semi-final in this tournament with 12 wins in 13 games with victory coming in 2020 albeit behind closed doors in Milton Keynes but can he add a second title this week?
He produced a 102 average and 11 maximums in the process in a true World Matchplay classic.
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Wright led early on against Van den Bergh pinning the bull with a 129 checkout to lead 2-1. But 'Snakebite' followed up with a 100 checkout to go 4-1 ahead and breeze through to the first interval well in front.
Only for Van den Bergh to come straight back producing a 91 checkout to hold and make it 5-2 and from there, he reeled off an astonishing nine unanswered legs to power into a 10-5 lead suddenly over Wright in the blink of an eye.
Wright squandered three darts at double on return and it was ten as Van den Bergh made it 11-5. But in the race to 16, Wright's race was not run yet as he dug deep to close the gap to 12-8 at the next interval.
He changed darts for a third time and reaped immediate rewards breaking throw to trail 12-9 and hit a 90 checkout to consolidate at 12-10.
Having trailed 11-5, Wright piled in a 104 checkout and an 89 to go 13-12 up. But in a match that twisted and turned, Van den Bergh stopped the rot with a 96 checkout to make it 13-13 before pinning 82 to go 14-13 up.
But parity was restored as Van den Bergh missed the bull to go potentially one away and Wright pinned double 10 to make it 14-14.
But Van den Bergh did go to the brink at 15-14 with a hold on double 14. A 177 left 44 from the Belgian and he had a shot with Wright unable to get treble 19 for 141 which Van den Bergh pinned.
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UndartedWaters22-11-2024 - It's called talent and good on him.medinabello21-11-2024
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