Van Gerwen beats Smith and achieves his third Darts World Cup

 Van Gerwen beats Smith and achieves his third Darts World Cup.

The Dutchman, current number 1 in the ranking, beat Englishman Michael Smith in the final by 7 sets to 3 to win his third world title.

Darts World Cup 

Michael Van Gerwen continues to make darts history. The Dutchman, number 1 in the ranking, was proclaimed champion of the 2019 Darts World Cup on Tuesday after beating Englishman Michael Smith by 7 sets to 3 in the final held at Alexandra Palace in London. 'Mighty Mike' succeeds Englishman Rob Cross and thus achieves his third world title after those achieved in 2014 and 2017.

In the first set Van Gerwen tried to land in the middle although Smith resisted to tie at 2 games. However, in the decisive game for this first round the Dutchman was more accurate to close with a 12 and a double 6. In the second Van Gerwen maintained his authority and despite the fact that in the third game Smith had options to overcome the Dutchman he closed with a triple 20 and a double 4 to take the second set. In the third Van Gerwen was once again dominant and despite Smith snatching a game from him he managed to close the sleeve with a double 20 to get 3-0 on the scoreboard. In the fourth set Smith led the way and even had opportunities to close the gap but failed to hit the double 12 while Van Gerwen did hit the double 8 to extend his lead to 4-0.

Smith managed to reduce the distance on the scoreboard in a fourth set where he managed to hold the Dutchman and in the decisive game he closed with a triple 20, a triple 14 and a double 11. Smith again got fully into the match winning the fifth set leaving Van Gerwen blank after closing with a 10, a 20 and a double 20. However Van Gerwen cut Smith's wings after winning the seventh set after closing in the fourth game with a 20, a triple 20 and a double 16.

Smith had the opportunity to take a very even eighth set although he did not hit the time to close 25, while Van Gerwen did manage to close with a 16 and a double 8 to get 6-2. The Briton added more excitement to the game by taking a close ninth set after closing with a double 7 in the deciding game. However, in the tenth set Van Gerwen was intractable and, despite wasting a dart to close the game by missing the double 16, in the fourth game he managed to close the second attempt with a double 16 to win the seventh set and claim his third world title to further expand his legend in the world of darts.