Gerwyn Price survived a stirring comeback from World Series of Darts Finals debutant Brody Klinge to win 6-4 and keep his own title hopes alive in Amsterdam — then fired a friendly warning at the man threatening to sweep all before him, Luke Littler.
Price waltzed into a 5-0 lead without missing a double, finding his range on tops with a brilliant 146 checkout to take command. Klinge's debut looked over before it began, but checkouts of 104, 96 and 119 hauled him back to within one leg before Price finally got the job done. "I started off well and dropped off, let him back into the game, gave him opportunities, and yeah, he took two good checkouts that probably hurt a little bit. But yeah, I'm just trying to fall over the winning line then. But yeah, I started well and let him off," Price said in his press conference.
The Welshman revealed a change of equipment was behind his blistering start. "I actually used different darts and different points," he explained. "I used the Switch points today and longer points, which I've been practising with for the last couple of weeks. I swear, if I can play like I can in the house, which is quite hard to do on the main stage, yeah, I score well with them. I hit everything, but probably saw a little bit of that in the first five legs, but then it sort of dropped off at the end. That's me just dunking the darts, but with a little bit more game time with them, a little more time with them on the main stage, then yeah, I'll be a bit more confident with them."
One of the most superstitious players on the PDC Tour, Price continues to tinker until everything is right. "Honestly, with these darts, I know there's an extra 100% in the tank because I score so well with them, but it's just trying to, you know, get into your game on the main stage. But yeah, if I can just find the confidence to use them like I did today, yeah, it works. But down to myself at the end. Like I said, a couple more games and I'll be fine."
Price has not won a major title since this event four years ago, and with big tournaments on the horizon he is backing himself to end that drought. "As well as I'm playing, I'm confident and I think, you know, going into the back end of the season, there's some majors I can win and, you know, some that I'm targeting as well," he said. Standing in his way is Littler, who got through a fiery encounter against Danny Noppert to keep his clean sweep hopes alive. Price is rooting for the feat — but only if he doesn't win the tournament himself. "If I don't win them, I hope he does," he admitted. "You know, fair play to him. You know, I want to win tournaments, but if I don't, then, you know, fair play to him. Just rewrite the history and, you know, if he wins every tournament, happy days. But I'm there to stop him. If I don't win them, yeah, I'm glad for him to win."
Looking ahead, Price outlined his schedule priorities. "I'd rather play in a lot more ProTours than Europeans because, you know, that is the prep. But when you're in Premier League and World Series, you just can't do everything and you have to miss vital tournaments. And, you know, don't get me wrong, Premier League, World Series, it's great to be in them, but they're not good practice. You know, sometimes you can lose first night on a Thursday, you might only play three games, and to go to World Series, they're not great prep. But you need to play in the ProTours, Europeans, if you want to be sharp for the big majors and, you know, that's what I look to do next year, I think."
Price confirmed his intentions of playing in the Leicester ProTour events and the final two European Tour events in Switzerland and the Netherlands. "I just like to play in the ProTours. They give you confidence, especially if you're going deep in those. They're good practice. You know, you don't see all the ProTour boys in the majors all the time and they're brilliant. You know, they're playing their best stuff on the floor and that's what makes you sharp. So I need to hit a lot more of them if I want to win majors because they're your bread and butter. They're what set you up and, yeah, next year I will hit a lot more of them. But yeah, like you said, I'll probably play in another two Europeans, two more ProTours this year and fingers crossed that I'm ready for the big back end of the year."
