Gerwyn Price insists he will stay cool as The Iceman heads towards a PDC World Darts Championship final showdown against Michael van Gerwen.
Welshman Price and world champion van Gerwen remain on course for an eagerly anticipated final after booking their places in the last four on Sunday night at Alexandra Palace.
In the last of the quarter-finals, Price produced a blistering display to end three-time BDO world champion Glen Durrant’s hopes of unifying darts’ two world titles.
A 99.69 average was enough to win 5-1 and seal a semi-final showdown tonight (Monday) with Peter Wright, the player Price hammered to win his second Grand Slam title in November.
Price had only won twice in his previous five visits to Alexandra Palace, never going beyond the third round, but he bounced back from a disjointed display against Simon Whitlock on Saturday to dispose of Duzza in ruthless fashion.
The former Neath and Cross Keys rugby player claims he will stay calm in his clash with Wright as bids to become world champion for the first time.
He was below par against Australian Whitlock in his last 16 match on Saturday, but put that down to the Wizard trying to purposefully slow him down.
Price does not anticipate any similar tactics from “Snakebite”, who he gets on well with.
“I don’t know, maybe . . . . maybe not. But I just go out there and try to concentrate on my own game,” said Price on the prospect of dealing with gamesmanship.
“It doesn’t really matter what Peter does, I’m the one throwing the darts and when I get to the oche, hopefully, I can just control myself.”
When asked if this optimistic outlook was based on Wright being a friend, Price said it was quite the opposite.
“No, I’d expect it more [from someone I get on with],” Price continued. “I don’t know, Peter’s a good bloke and I don’t think he’d try that. He’ll do what he can to play his best, but I don’t think he’d do it on purpose to put me off.
‘If he needs to slow his game down to improve his game he might do it, but I don’t think he’ll do it to put me off.”
The Iceman lost his cool to some extent against Whitlock, picking up a comfortable win in the end, but describing the pace of the match as ‘pathetic’.
“The pace of the game wasn’t suiting me. I think Simon did that on purpose but I’ll learn from this game and I’ll try and perform better the next time I come up against that situation,” Price said after beating the Aussie.
“I like a good flow and a good game, but some people try and drag you down. I think that game was just slowed down to a pathetic pace.
Darts fans have been queuing up to tip a meeting between Price and van Gerwen – the sport’s best players this year – and while their semi-final opponents still have plenty to say, MvG and the Iceman will both be firm favourites to make the final.
Defending champion Van Gerwen, chasing a fourth title in seven years, continued his progress with a 5-2 victory over Lithuania’s Darius Labanauskas to advance to a showdown with Nathan Aspinall.