Van Gerwen punishes Petersen at the World Grand Prix as Anderson, Whitlock and Van Duijvenbode also progress

Michael van Gerwen powered past Devon Petersen to book his place in the World Grand Prix Quarter-Finals on Thursday, while Gary Anderson also prevailed in straight sets.

Reigning champion Van Gerwen came through a sudden-death leg to deny Krzysztof Ratajski in Round One but enjoyed a more straight-forward passage past Petersen.

Petersen was left to rue multiple missed darts at doubles to win each of the first two sets as the defending champion punished to progress to the Last Eight in Coventry.

In-form debutant Petersen missed two doubles to win the first set and five to win the second as MVG seized his reprieve before going on to clinch the third set 3-1 to seal victory with a 96.3 average.

“I enjoyed this game. I did the damage at the right moments but Devon played a good game as well,” said Van Gerwen.

“It was close but it doesn’t matter how you win as long as you win. I think I was the better player during the game.

“Devon is probably in the form of his life and he’s playing with a lot of confidence, and I’m happy with my performance.

“He’s a good guy and a good player, but he needs to know who the boss is!

“He’s only won one tournament in his life – let him keep dreaming.”

Van Gerwen will now face Simon Whitlock on Saturday after the Australian fought his way to a 3-2 win over Mervyn King in a marathon contest.

A nail-biting battle saw the maximum 25 legs played out as Whitlock came from a set and two legs down to set up a World Matchplay rematch with MVG.

King led 2-1 in sets in the battle of the former Boylesports World Grand Prix runners-up, before Whitlock took out a crucial 72 checkout to force a deciding set.

Whitlock, who came into the tournament as a late-notice replacement for Adrian Lewis, landed a 120 finish – his third ton-plus checkout of the contest – along with a 92 combination to send the tie to a sudden-death leg.

Despite King throwing first, Whitlock out-scored his opponent and finished the job on double top to make it through.

“I’m very happy,” said Whitlock. “I’m very relaxed, I’m on a free-roll and we all know what I can do.

“Hopefully I can go one further than a couple of years ago.

“I enjoyed the game tonight and it had some good moments – and I never gave up. I kept fighting and it was a crazy match – Mervyn is a tough competitor and we always have good games.

“There were good points and bad points and at times we struggled to hit our starting doubles, but to go to the last leg it’s a great match. I’m excited, I’m enjoying playing darts and loving life.”

Gary Anderson breezed into the Quarter-Finals with a straight sets victory over Danny Noppert.

The 2016 finalist flew out of the blocks and was averaging just shy of 110 after taking the first set without conceding a leg.

The Scot afforded Noppert opportunities to win both the second and third sets, but the Dutchman was unable to capitalise as Anderson seal his passage to the last eight, where he will take on Van Duijvenbode on Saturday.

“The first set was great but I dipped off during the second, and I got over the winning line eventually,” said Anderson.

“Danny didn’t start the way he did in his first round game and I wanted to step in on his mistakes. We both threw a few legs away but I got the job done.”

Dirk Van Duijvenbode progressed his first major Quarter-Final by defeating World Matchplay champion Dimitri Van den Bergh 3-1 in the opening game of the night.

Van Duijvenbode was much-improved from his scrappy debut win over Mensur Suljovic as the Dutchman took the opening two sets, both of which went to deciding legs as he capitalised on misses from his opponent to claim both.

Van den Bergh hit back to win the third set’s decider, but it wasn’t to be the dancing Belgian’s night as Van Duijvenbode held his nerve on double 16 to continue his breakthrough run.

“I’m happy that I won,” he said. “I felt like I had to put something right after the last game because I didn’t play as well as I wanted to and I think I played okay today.

“I wanted to show people that I deserve to be here and hopefully I will play well again in the next round.”

Friday will see the final four Second Round ties take place, including a clash between world number three Gerwyn Price and Belgium’s Kim Huybrechts.

WATCH THE WORLD GRAND PRIX STREAMED LIVE HERE (18+)

Boylesports World Grand Prix 2020 Results

Thursday October 8

Second Round

Dimitri Van den Bergh 1-3 Dirk van Duijvenbode
Mervyn King 2-3 Simon Whitlock
Gary Anderson 3-0 Danny Noppert
Michael van Gerwen 3-0 Devon Petersen