Danny Noppert won a Players Championship tournament for the third time in his career on Sunday. The 32-year-old Fries was 8-3 too strong for Simon Whitlock in the Players Championship 2 final in Barnsley.
On the way to the final, Noppert was too strong for Dylan Slevin (6-3), Connor Scutt (6-0), Vladimir Andersen (6-4), Jamie Hughes (6-3), Callan Rydz (6-4) and Brendan Dolan (7-3). In the final battle he scored a neat average of 100.70. At Players Championship 1, Noppert stranded in the eighth finals on Saturday.
The tournament victory is a nice boost for Noppert, who was in a somewhat lesser period of his career. At the World Cup, the number eight on the PDC Order of Merit was already eliminated in the third round. At The Masters, the first major tournament of the year, the quarterfinals were his destination.
Michael van Gerwen did not get further than the last 32 in Barnsley. ‘Mighty Mike’ was eliminated by Dolan (6-3) after victories over William O’Connor (6-5) and Ross Smith (6-3). Raymond van Barneveld fought his way to the eighth finals, but had to admit his superior in Whitlock: 6-2.
Whitlock was also too strong for Richard Veenstra in the quarterfinals, who was the best performing Dutchman after Noppert: 6-4. Dirk van Duijvenbode, the number thirteen in the world, lost 6-5 to James Wade in the eighth finals.
