Dubai: The opening day of the fourth annual Dubai Duty Free Darts Masters went from the ridiculous to the sublime on Thursday evening — and the vagaries of the weather played a significant part.
As the only outdoor tournament on the professional circuit, the eight players taking part face a unique challenge of battling uncommon heat and humidity and occasional gusts of wind.
But it was the wind, which was particularly problematic early on at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Stadium, undoubtedly contributing to drubbings for Adrian Lewis (10-1) and James Wade (10-2) at the hands of Dave Chisnall and Phil Taylor respectively.
As the night wore on, the wind died down and closer encounters ensued — world champion Gary Anderson overcoming Raymond van Barneveld 10-7 before the three-time defending champion, Michael van Gerwen, beat Peter Wright by the same scoreline.
Lewis, a two-time world champion, and Chisnall began their clash by laughing at how the wind was making them look foolish as their darts flew off course. The former was the worst affected of the two, though, at one stage holding his finger up in despair to check the direction of the wind.
Unaffected, Chisnall took out finishes of 130, 110 and 105 and checked out 10 doubles from 18 attempts to record the biggest winning margin in Dubai darts history.
“We knew it was going to be windy, because as we were walking out the curtains were blowing,” the Englishman, who was due to meet Van Gerwen in Friday night’s first semi-final, said. “When we first started, it was like we were in a pub just joking and laughing about it.
“Then it started to get serious, I hit some good finishes. It is the same for all of us, it is about who can cope with it best.”
Later, the world No. 1 Van Gerwen produced a scintillating display as he posted a three-dart average of over 107 and landed 10 180s.
The Dutchman’s rapid throwing style negates any havoc the wind can wreak, but the immensely confident Van Gerwen gives the impression that not even a tornado would disrupt him.
“Conditions were fine,” he told Gulf News. “I think the wind dropped after the first game a little bit. We all have the same conditions and the same circumstances.
“You can’t really do anything about it. You just need to perform and I did.”
Anderson, meanwhile, was pleased his anti-wind measure had paid off.
“I thought I’d try a heavier set of darts,” the Scot said. “I play with 23-gram darts and these were 25 gram and they went all right, I was happy with them. My 180s weren’t there but there were lots of 140s and I’m happy.”
His last-four opponent on Friday, the 16-time world champion Taylor, said his 110 checkout in his rout of Wade was “one of the best finishes I’ve ever had — and the luckiest,” as the wind was blowing.
“You did have a breeze every now and again but it wasn’t that bad,” said Taylor, who also threw a 170 checkout.
“For me and James, it was probably eight or nine times that it blew across, and when it did it really blew, it was weird.”
Thursday’s results
Quarter-finals (seedings in brackets)
Adrian Lewis (4) 1-10 Dave Chisnall
Phil Taylor (3) 10-2 James Wade
Gary Anderson (2) 10-8 Raymond van Barneveld
Michael van Gerwen (1) 10-7 Peter Wright
Best of 19 legs
