SIMON WHITLOCK believes he is back to his best and is still getting better following two PDC tournament wins last month.
‘The Wizard’ won two of the six UK Open Qualifiers in February to up his tournament win tally to four in as many months, as his recent resurgence continued.
The Australian began March with a run to the quarter-finals of the UK Open in Minehead, where he was only denied by an inspired Daryl Gurney in 10-9 thriller.
Despite that disappointment, Whitlock believes that he will continue to make good progress in 2017.
“I was obviously gutted after losing to Daryl because I thought I had a great chance of winning my second major title,” said Whitlock, who won the European Championship in 2012.
“He pulled out a great leg in the decider though so credit to him and to Peter Wright who deserved to win the tournament.
“Only Peter and Michael van Gerwen have won more titles than me in the first couple of months of this year. They are world number one and three and I’m ranked 16th. I believe I am much better than that and intend to keep proving it.
“I’ve worked really hard for the last two years and I’m starting to get the results. I can only take on tournament at a time but I’ve set myself some targets and they include more success on ProTour events but also to do better on the European Tour and in TV events.”
March sees Whitlock appear in two further Players Championship events and the first European Tour event of 2017 as he bids to keep up his impressive strike rate of late.