Michael van Gerwen has won the World Grand Prix for the sixth time. The 33-year-old darts player from Brabant was 5-3 in sets too strong for Nathan Aspinall from England in the final.
Van Gerwen, who had eliminated world champion Peter Wright a day earlier, immediately distanced himself from Aspinall by winning the first set 3-0 in legs. The second set that the English darts player had started also went to ‘Mighty Mike’, who then saw the sixth title in the World Grand Prix come close by also winning the third and fourth set.
Aspinall did not give in, however, threw better and took a set. The Englishman then continued and also won the sixth and seventh set and was allowed to start in the eighth set. However, Van Gerwen won that first leg after a miss by Aspinall on double 20. In the leg after that, Aspinall also missed a chance for ‘tops’ and was behind 2-0. Van Gerwen gave up the initiative in the fourth leg he started, because he missed on the double with which the leg in the World Grand Prix should be started. Aspinall came back to 2-2 in legs and had the chance to tie the score in sets, but missed. Van Gerwen then finished it off with double 6.
intestinal problems
Van Gerwen said afterwards at Viaplay that he suffered from intestinal problems during the match. “I’m going to be very honest, halfway through the game I had to go to the toilet and if you get stomach cramps, you have to try to stay focused. That’s not easy. I literally and figuratively stood with a squeezed buttocks.”
De Brabander called it a real problem. “You can laugh about it now, but I was stuck with it. You have to try to arm yourself against it and deal with it, but that didn’t go too well. I think I’m giving away a lot of legs unnecessarily. He’s missing an arrow, otherwise it would have been 4-4 and from there everyone can win. I’m glad it didn’t come that far.”
The World Grand Prix is one of the major tournaments of the professional association PDC, with 600,000 British pounds (almost 700,000 euros) in the prize pool. Van Gerwen has won the tournament five times before. This year, the Brabander also won the Premier League and the World Matchplay.