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Michael van Gerwen clinched his fourth Pro Tour title of 2012, as he defeated Robert Thornton in the final of Players Championship 13 at Dublin’s Citywest Hotel on Saturday.

‘Mighty Mike’ continued his impressive form to claim the £6,000 first prize, edging past Thornton in an exciting deciding leg.

The Dutch youngster, who faces Colin Lloyd in the first round of the PartyPoker.com World Grand Prix on Tuesday evening, kicked off with victories over Andrew Gilding and Dennis Smith, before defeating Paul Nicholson.

He then beat Joe Cullen in the quarter-finals before seeing off Arron Monk in the last four, producing a 170 checkout in the process.

van Gerwen came back from 4-1 and 5-3 down to snatch victory from Thornton in the final.

‘The Thorn’, who sensationally won the UK Open in June, had seen off Kevin McDine, Mike Veitch and Mervyn King to reach the last 16.

There he defeated Ian White 6-1 before hitting back from 5-2 down to triumph 6-5 against Denis Ovens.

The Scotsman again found himself 5-2 behind in the semi-final, but launched another brilliant comeback to reach the final at the expense of Scott Rand.

Former Under-21 World Champion Monk enjoyed his best Pro Tour performance to date, with a run to the last four.

The Hampshire youngster defeated Dennis Priestley and Mark Webster on his way to the semi-finals, where he lost out to eventual winner van Gerwen.

Webster enjoyed a run to the quarter-finals ahead of his World Grand Prix first round clash against Andy Hamilton on Tuesday evening.

Sunday sees the 14th Players Championship event take place at the Citywest Hotel, with the £350,000 World Grand Prix commencing on Monday.

By Chris Murphy

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Image courtesy of Lawrence Lustig/PDC