Michael van Gerwen has dropped a cheeky warning to Luke Littler and his league of darting adversaries.
At 35, MVG is showing no signs of passing the torch anytime soon, having snagged the Players Championship 21 title in Wigan just this last Wednesday (September 18), leaving Dave Chisnall in his wake with a blistering 106.67 average. Van Gerwen pocketed his first ranking silverware of the year with an 8-4 smashing of the English top seed, but that wasn’t enough for the Dutch destroyer.
He zoomed off to bag the Hungarian Darts Trophy mere days later. Tussling with fellow countryman Gian van Veen in Budapest on Sunday (September 22). Van Gerwen stumbled early doors, trailing 7-5 in their best-of-15 clash, but, powered by sheer determination and a key break of throw to tie things up, he obliterated the final leg to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.
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A cool £30,000 prize fattened MVG’s wallet for his troubles, and bumped him up even closer to second-place PDC Order of Merit titan, Michael Smith, who’s clinging to a mere £38,750 lead over him post-weekend. A buzzing van Gerwen reflected on his win, confessing: “Of course this was really important and I was struggling in the final, and he [Van Veen] knows that.”
“Gian took his advantages and loads of opportunities in this game but I was more battling with myself in this final and that wasn’t good, but you have to go through it.” The champ also waxed lyrical about the charged energy from the MDM Dome crowd and Hungary’s fans, which fuelled his championship drive.
(Image: Getty Images)
He also dropped an ominous message to Littler and his other darting rivals, adding: “I think I’m on the right way especially with my new darts and everything, of course with the crowd. This smells like more, and I can do it.”
Van Gerwen is gunning to keep up his red-hot streak into a packed schedule featuring the Swiss Darts Trophy, the BoyleSports World Grand Prix, the Players Championships finals, and the World Darts Championship held at Alexandra Palace as the year wraps up. Meanwhile, teen sensation 17-year-old Littler decided to hit pause, withdrawing from the Hungarian Darts Trophy on Thursday despite riding high on a wave of recent victories.