Michael van Gerwen has admitted that he was made to work for his place in the World Grand Prix final after battling past Dave Chisnall 4-2 in Dublin on Friday night.
The Dutchman, victorious against Simon Whitlock in the last round, survived his toughest test yet as he was able to get the job done against an opponent he lost to at the quarter-final stage here in 2013.
Chisnall was second best in the first set as Van Gerwen averaged 114 to quickly ease ahead, though the St Helens thrower hit back and took the next two sets to put the world number one under real pressure.
Having found himself trailing in the pivotal fourth set, Van Gerwen took a 10-dart leg to pave the way for a comeback that would see him level things up overall and then move ahead in the contest without dropping a leg in the fifth set.
Van Gerwen then recovered from 2-0 down in the sixth and final set to book a place in the final of the competition for the third time in a row, where he will face number two seed Gary Anderson - the first time the pair have met in a PDC ranking final.
"Dave's a fantastic guy and it was a pleasure to play in an amazing game like this," Van Gerwen told PDC.tv. "Dave played a fantastic game and I had to fight. He made it really difficult - you feel the pressure if someone plays like that against you, but I played a good game and I'm really happy."
Anderson had never previously reached the last four of this double-start format competition, but he beat Raymond van Barneveld 4-1 to keep his run alive.
Van Barneveld had not dropped a set up until this point, though his Scottish opponent was able to overcome the odd scare to safely progress through for a showdown between the top two seeds on Saturday evening.
Daniel Lewis
