Michael van Gerwen grabs next to fourth UK Open title after thrilling final: ‘Can only blame myself’ | Darts

,,Parties like this are always difficult to play”, Van Gerwen said on stage afterwards. ,,He has nothing to lose and plays for his own audience. He did well, but I can only blame myself. If I don’t hit him, it’s going to be tough. He did very well”, said Van Gerwen, who immediately congratulated his opponent. ,,This is painful for me, because I want to win tournaments.”

Andrew – Goldfinger – Gilding had won only one PDC tournament in his long career so far: the 2011 Gibraltar Open. BEST REGARDS Contrast 148 (!) titles. David against Goliath so late Sunday night. Van Gerwen was completely justified in the final, after a difficult route through Dave Chisnall (10-8), Martijn Kleermaker (10-6), Luke Humphries (10-4), Nathan Aspinall (10-6) and Dimitri van den Bergh ( 11-6). The open draw was more favorable to Gilding. The 52-year-old Englishman faced Ricky Evans (10-5), Luke Woodhouse (10-5), Brendan Dolan (10-8), Martin Schindler (10-4) and Adam Gawlas (11-6).

In a gray past – in 2015 – Gilding and Van Gerwen also faced each other once in the semi-finals of the UK Open. Then the Dutchman won, albeit with some difficulty: 10-8. This time the Vlijmenaar seemed to take off immediately (2-0), but Gilding was not impressed and took the next four legs (2-4), after which the Groene Wrecking Ball from Vlijmen showed resilience (6-4). But even after 8-5 it was not over yet. Van Gerwen missed too many doubles, giving Gilding the chance to make it 9-9.

At the end of the long day of play, Van Gerwen squeezed out another 170 finish and was on the threshold of his fourth UK Open title. That Gilding came back to 10-10 was no drama, because the Dutchman was allowed to start the decisive leg. Van Gerwen missed one match dart, after which Gilding struck and took the prize.

The second jaw blow for Van Gerwen in 2023, after the lost World Cup final against Michael Smith in early January. He now gets a few days of rest to recover from all the fatigue. At the start of this edition of the UK Open, he already complained about some fatigue last Friday, the day after he had (and won) a Premier League evening in Exeter on Thursday and had to go straight to Minehead the next morning. The extensive travel – almost all year round – also takes its toll on the relatively young Van Gerwen (33). He also complained about the cold in Exeter. ,,The PDC is failing a bit”, he sneered at the PDC on Viaplay.

It did not prevent him from winning the Premier League night in Exeter, but he just failed to succeed Danny Noppert in Minehead, who surprisingly won the UK Open last year.