Wessel Nijman continued his domination of the Players Championship series on Tuesday afternoon, scooping his fourth ProTour title of the year and his seventh overall with an 8-5 victory over fellow Dutchman Jermaine Wattimena in the final of Players Championship 12.
The red-hot Dutchman weathered an early Wattimena lead to roar to victory in an all-Dutch affair. Wattimena missed the bull for 88 in the opening leg but returned to take it on double eight for 1-0. Nijman levelled at 1-1 with a 96 checkout on double eight, but Wattimena broke back immediately on double eight and held for 3-1. Nijman held to make it 3-2, then Wattimena stretched his lead to 4-2 before Nijman hit back with a 56 checkout on double 16 to level at 4-4.
Nijman took the lead for the first time at 5-4 on double 16, but Wattimena stopped the rot with an 80 checkout to make it 5-5. Nijman held for 6-5, then a dramatic 12th leg saw Wattimena miss multiple darts at double 10 before Nijman eventually pinned double 16 to go 7-5 up. Nijman sealed the win with double eight in the next leg, closing out an 8-5 victory.
Earlier in the day, three of the four semi-finalists were Dutch — Nijman, Wattimena and Kevin Doets — with only Tom Bissell representing another nation. Big names fell early: Luke Humphries lost in the opening round to Keane Barry, Gian van Veen was defeated by Dimitri van den Bergh, and Stephen Bunting lost in the Last 32 to Mike de Decker. Chris Dobey and Gary Anderson reached the quarter-finals, with Dobey losing to Wattimena and Anderson falling to Doets. Beau Greaves, fresh off her title win the previous day, saw her run ended 6-0 by Tom Bissell in the quarter-finals.
