Peter Wright continued his sensational start to 2022 by winning Players Championship 2 in Barnsley on Sunday, defeating Gerwyn Price in the final.
Three days on from winning the opening night of the Premier League, the World Champion opened his year’s ProTour title account with an 8-5 win over Price.
Wright’s reached the semi-finals at Players Championship 1 on Saturday, and continued his fine form to land his 43rd PDC title.
The title win would have been enough to see Wright move into the world number one spot for the first time, had it not been for Price progressing beyond the quarter-finals.
“I’m very happy to get the win today, especially against a player of the class of Gezzy,” said Wright.
“I wasn’t thinking of becoming world number one until at least March but if I knuckle down and win tournaments I might get there sooner.
“Yesterday I felt great and thought I was going to win.
“Today my darts were going in at strange angles so I swapped to my old ones, so I don’t know which darts I’m going to use on Thursday night!”
The world number two began the day with a 6-5 win over Alan Soutar, before victories over Lewy Williams and Eddie Lovely followed.
Wright then averaged 101.36 in a win over Lee Evans, before a 6-4 defeat of Rob Cross and a 104.58 average in a 7-3 semi-final victory over Damon Heta.
A gripping final between the world’s top two saw Price take the lead on two occasions at 3-1 and 5-4, only for Wright to battle back to lead 6-5.
With Price waiting on 32, Wright produced a 121 checkout on the bullseye to take a 7-5 lead, which proved to be a hammer blow as the Scot sealed the win with a 14-dart leg.
Elsewhere at Players Championship 2, Ian White hit a nine-dart leg in a 6-3 loss to Mensur Suljovic in round one.
Croatia’s Boris Krcmar reached his first Players Championship semi-final, while Associate Member Stephen Burton reached his first quarter-final.
Michael van Gerwen’s struggle for form continued as he suffered a third round defeat to Burton.
The 2022 PDC ProTour season continues with Players Championships 3 and 4 on February 12-13 at the Robin Park Tennis Centre, Wigan.
Live action will be broadcast across two streams on PDCTV.
View all results from Players Championship 2 in the Match Centre.
View stats from all matches in DartConnect.
2022 Players Championship 2
Sunday February 6
Last 16
Gerwyn Price 6-3 Gordon Mathers
Stephen Burton 6-3 Martin Schindler
Boris Krcmar 6-0 Ryan Meikle
Stephen Bunting 6-4 William O’Connor
Damon Heta 6-1 Mensur Suljovic
Niels Zonneveld 6-4 Luke Humphries
Peter Wright 6-4 Lee Evans
Rob Cross 6-3 Jamie Clark
Quarter-Finals
Gerwyn Price 6-1 Stephen Burton
Boris Krcmar 6-3 Stephen Bunting
Damon Heta 6-1 Niels Zonneveld
Peter Wright 6-4 Rob Cross
Semi-Finals
Gerwyn Price 7-0 Boris Krcmar
Peter Wright 7-3 Damon Heta
Final
Peter Wright 8-5 Gerwyn Price
About Author
