“Hardly anything worked”
Darts star van Gerwen escapes World Cup embarrassment
12/18/2025 – 11:56 p.mReading time: 2 minutes
Last year’s finalist Michael van Gerwen wanted to start the World Cup convincingly. But that didn’t work against a 52-year-old outsider from Japan. Only an increase in performance saved him from elimination.
The three-time darts world champion Michael van Gerwen had unexpectedly big problems in his World Cup opening match. Against the 52-year-old Japanese Mitsuhiko Tatsunami, the third-seeded “Mighty Mike” prevailed 3-1 after being down one set. He only converted his third match dart and was very lucky not to have to go into the deciding set.
In front of the eyes of former England soccer international Peter Crouch, van Gerwen left the stage in frustration after losing the first set, while his competitor celebrated extensively with the fans at Alexandra Palace. In the fourth set, the 36-year-old had to go into the decider, in which Tatsunami even had several chances to force the fifth round. But his nerves failed him.
“I feel good, but hardly anything worked,” said van Gerwen. “He made me work really hard.” At DAZN, the champion from 2014, 2017 and 2019 said: “The first round is always the hardest.”
At the last World Cup, van Gerwen somewhat surprisingly stormed into the final, but then lost to Luke Littler.
Van Gerwen hasn’t let his mixed performances on stage this year get him down recently. “I’m always a positive person. And the others still have to beat me – they know that,” the Dutchman said before the start of the tournament. The lost World Cup final was followed by “a difficult year” personally and sportingly, as he says.
In May, van Gerwen made his separation from his wife Daphne public after more than ten years of marriage and then took a two-month break from tournaments.
Before van Gerwen’s arduous start, Fallon Sherrock said goodbye to the World Cup. The 31-year-old Englishwoman had no chance in the 3-0 defeat against her compatriot Dave Chisnall, who now faces Pietreczko. The wait for the first victory by a woman since 2019 continues. At that time, Sherrock even defeated her competitors Ted Evetts and Mensur Suljovic.