Van Gerwen targets World Cup after retaining Masters
Dutchman says they are the favourites for June 6-8 tournament
Dubai: World No. 1 and current darts world champion Michael Van Gerwen has set his sights on World Cup glory for the Netherlands after retaining his Dubai Duty Free Darts Masters title at the Dubai Tennis Stadium on Friday.
Gerwen, 25, beat Peter Wright 11-7 in the final to reclaim the Coffee Pot after overcoming Adrian Lewis 11-7 in the semi-final and James Wade 10-9 in Thursday’s quarter-final. The success enabled Gerwen to bounce back from last week’s 10-6 Premier League final defeat to fellow Dutchman Raymond Van Barneveld, who he will now team up with ahead of the Professional Darts Corporation’s (PDC) World Cup of Darts in Hamburg, Germany, from June 6-8.
“It’s a great win, which is good for confidence,” said Van Gerwen. “With this we go next week to the World Cup where me and Raymond [Van Barneveld] play together.
“I’m the world champion, he’s the Premier League champion — now I’m also the Dubai winner — so the odds are quite good for us.
“We are favourites to win [The World Cup] but that doesn’t mean anything. It’s not about that. It’s about trying to play as well as possible and trying to win that tournament [the World Cup] as well. I’ve never won that tournament before so it’s a nice target for me.”
Wright had a 3-2 early lead over Van Gerwen in the Dubai final, but the Dutchman pulled clear with four successive legs at four all to lead 8-4. Van Gerwen went 9-5 up with a 116 finish but Wright fought back pinning a 158 checkout, before the Dutchman took his tally of 180s to 11 in the final with two in the next three legs.
“It’s the first time I’ve won a major title back-to-back and to win in this country means a lot,” said Van Gerwen.
“This is one of the nicest places in the world and to win a tournament over here, not only the first, but to win it twice in a row, is even better.
“I thought I was the better player in the game but I made it difficult for myself and to be fair and you shouldn’t do that. But it doesn’t matter, a win is a win and I know I could win this game easier if I just focused.”
Wright — who was making his World Series of Darts debut — came into the final off the back of a shock 10-5 quarter-final win over Phil Taylor and an 11-7 semi-final win over Dave Chisnall. The 44-year-old Scotsman had rocketed up the rankings to feature in this world top eight event and said that despite defeat the experience had been invaluable.
“This will give me more and more confidence. If I’m back in it next year I’ve been through the final and know what it’s like so I can prepare myself properly.
“I was just struggling with my consistency, one minute I hit a good score then two bad scores and then I shot some big finishes.
“To be honest, I was battling myself and not noticing what Michael was doing, I was just playing my own game. If I had played my own game it might have been a lot closer.”
