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Michael van Gerwen and Mervyn King are both bidding to win their first major PDC title after impressive PartyPoker.com World Grand Prix semi-final victories in Dublin on Saturday.

van Gerwen stormed past world number six Wez Newton, while King saw off the challenge of crowd favourite Brendan Dolan at the Citywest Hotel.

The pair, both former World Masters in their BDO days, will battle it out for the £100,000 title on Sunday evening.

‘Mighty Mike’ shared the first two sets with Newton in a close opening to the match.

The Dutch ace then took the next two sets, both on deciding legs, before winning six of the last seven to seal the victory, posting a brilliant 95.04 average in the process.

“It feels amazing,” admitted van Gerwen, who defeated Colin Lloyd, Adrian Lewis and Andy Hamilton before his last four triumph.

“I am so happy to be in my first PDC major final, especially in a very hard tournament like this.

“Tonight was my best performance so far and I hope I can continue to play like this in what is a massive match tomorrow.”

King will take on the 23-year-old star after he ended Northern Irishman Dolan’s run with a 5-2 success.

‘The King’ hit back from two legs down to win the first set, silencing the home crowd.

He took the second set 3-1 but Dolan halved his lead, winning set three with a brilliant 170 checkout.

King restored his two set lead though and then increased his advantage by winning a deciding leg in the fifth set.

He then missed four match darts in the sixth set decider, granting last year’s runner up a stay of execution.

But the former Premier League finalist produced fantastic finishes of 108 and 132 to complete a terrific victory.

“I’ve put a lot of hard work in so I’m delighted it’s finally paying off,” said King.

“It’s going to be a very hard game against Michael. He is playing incredibly well at the moment and he deserves to be there.

“Obviously when we go on stage tomorrow I’ll want him to lose, but thats darts.

“Reaching the final has got me into the Grand Slam and put me back in the top sixteen so the hard work really has payed off.”

By Chris Murphy

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Image courtesy of Lawrence Lustig/PDC