Dubai Duty Free Darts player guide: Michael van Gerwen

Nickname Mighty Mike

Date of birth April 25 1989

Home town Vlijmen, Netherlands

Darts used 23g XQDarts

PDC Order of Merit 1st (at February 23 2015)

Twitter @MvG180

The current world number one, Dutch ace van Gerwen has enjoyed an extraordinary three years to establish himself as one of the sport’s superstars.

A teenage wonderkid when he broke through to win the 2006 World Masters, he would wait a further six years to pick up his next major title at the 2012 World Grand Prix, a victory which has sparked a golden spell of success.

A two-time World Youth Championship finalist who honed his skills in the early years of the PDC's Youth Tour, van Gerwen was the dominant player on the PDC circuit in 2013.

Having hit a brilliant nine-darter in the 2013 World Championship - and missed double 12 to complete amazing back-to-back perfect legs - his Premier League win in his debut season of that event was swiftly followed by victory in the PDC's inaugural World Series event in Dubai.

Two European Tour victories were accompanied by seven other ProTour wins during the year, which ended with him going all the way to glory in the 2014 World Championship - defeating Peter Wright in the final in his most memorable New Year's Day ever.

After topping the Premier League table once again following the 2014 season, van Gerwen bounced back from losing that title to van Barneveld in the Play-Offs by picking up another victory in the Dubai Darts Masters.

He added another World Series title in Singapore in August 2014 and teamed up with van Barneveld to win the World Cup of Darts title before a golden October led to him taking a second World Grand Prix triumph and success in the European Championship, which also featured a nine-darter.

A semi-finalist in the defence of his World Championship title, van Gerwen began 2015 in style by winning The Masters in Milton Keynes, a European Tour event and three UK Open Qualifiers during an amazing run which saw him win 42 games out of 43 during February.