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Michael van Gerwen in London
Photo: Andrew Redington / Getty Images
Michael van Gerwen was beside himself.
Again
“A really stupid mistake from the people here.
They are amateurs, «said the Dutchman after his opening game at this year's Darts World Cup against Chas Barstow (3: 1).
He has never seen anything like it.
What happened?
When van Gerwen looked for his darts arrows before his game, they were gone.
Employees of the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) apparently failed to get them ready on the 32-year-old's table in time.
In the end, van Gerwen had to wait 30 seconds.
Actually, the story wouldn't be worth mentioning.
But she currently fits into the picture of the world number three.
No tournament win this year
Because "Mighty Mike", as he is called by his fans, is in the first big crisis of his career. In January he lost the world rankings for the first time in seven years, and in this calendar year van Gerwen did not win a single major tournament on the PDC tour. There were also bitter defeats in duels with supposed outsiders. Against Peter Wright, a major rival at the World Cup, he lost twice significantly. After all, he made it into the final of the European Darts Championship in October. A sign of life.
Van Gerwen's success story didn't seem to want to end for a long time.
The trained floor layer has been playing darts since 2002 and officially became a professional in 2005.
Many experts saw him as the legitimate successor to the aging record champion Phil Taylor.
And van Gerwen actually lived up to his role quickly.
To date he has won 81 PDC titles, in 2014, 2017 and 2019 he was crowned world champion.
World number one for seven years
Van Gerwen, who runs into "Seven Nation Army" by "The White Stripes", is also a five-time winner of the prestigious Premier League.
Between 2014 and 2021 he led the world rankings without interruption.
Van Gerwen has long been a multimillionaire and lives with his family in a 400 square meter house in his adopted home Vlijmen.
Not infrequently it sparked enthusiasm among the many spectators in London's Alexandra Palace, known as "Ally Pally": In 2017, he scored an average of 114.05 points against Raymond van Barneveld in the semifinals.
A professional has never been better at a game.
In the same year he threw an average of 106.32 points over the entire tournament.
Another record.
But now the aura of invincibility seems broken.
The corona pandemic, but also the fact that the focus was on the family after the birth of his second child (April 2020) have ensured that he has lost some of his dominance.
Since then, van Gerwen has been looking irritable, sometimes reacting thinly to questions from journalists.
After his successful start he was evidently compelled to clarify something: “Everyone knows what I'm capable of.
The other players depend on me.
If I play my game, nobody can beat me, ”said van Gerwen, who likes to show off his self-confidence with wild jubilation poses.
"Second best player in the world"
However, these statements bounce off Gerwyn Price.
The well-trained Welshman, who, as a former rugby professional, embodies the counter-draft of an overweight darts player, is the reigning world champion, world number one and the big favorite for the title.
He recently described van Gerwen as "the second best player in the world".
An answer was not long in coming.
"We all know that he (Price, editor's note) is convinced of himself," said van Gerwen.
But deep in his heart, the Dutchman continues, he knows "that they are all dependent on me."
Incidentally, he mentioned that Price had long resisted a corona vaccination.
Poison arrows before a possible endgame.
Van Gerwen should concentrate on other tasks for the time being.
In the third round he meets Chris Dobey (the schedule of the Darts World Cup can be found here).
The 31-year-old is considered an unpleasant opponent and already had other stars on the verge of defeat in "Ally Pally" (2019, 3: 4 against Gary Anderson).
Van Gerwen's first heavyweight, Dave Chisnall, would be waiting for Van Gerwen in the round of 16 at the latest: The Englishman inflicted one of the bitterest defeats of his career on “Mighty Mike” at the last World Cup.
Even in this game, van Gerwen can show the darts world that he is still the same.
