Three-time world champion Michael van Gerwen has been surprisingly eliminated from the World Darts Championship in London. Englishman Scott Williams was too strong for Mighty Mike in the quarter-finals of the World Cup on Monday evening. The darts player from Vlijmen lost 5-3 to Williams, number 52 in the world, in Alexandra Palace. “Unbelievable,” Van Gerwen responded afterwards.
Van Gerwen reached the last eight of the World Cup with a great display of power on Friday by beating the Englishman Stephen Bunting 4-0. And he also impressed in his previous two matches at the World Cup. He hasn’t lost a set until this match.
“Not the way I wanted to start 2024,” Van Gerwen responded on social media after the loss. A response in which he also indicated that this loss is hard.
Van Gerwen played well below his potential against Williams on Monday. He started the match with a series of misses on the doubles and gave the first set to his opponent. He then recovered somewhat and took a 2-1 lead, but then the Vlijmen native collapsed and was defeated on all fronts by Williams.
Killer instinct was missing
Strangely enough, his scores were initially high, but he lacked his usual killer instinct. At the end of the match his scores remained unusually low and Williams punished this expertly by winning sets seven and eight convincingly.
Van Gerwen won the World Cup in 2014, 2017 and 2019. He will have to wait at least another year for a fourth title after this defeat.