NOS Sport•yesterday, 10:03 PM•Amended yesterday, 11:53 PM
Michael van Gerwen has qualified for the final battle of the World Darts Championship for the seventh time. The 35-year-old Brabander will meet Luke Littler in the final battle on Friday evening; last year’s losing finalist defeated Stephen Bunting 6-1.
Van Gerwen also won his semi-final convincingly 6-1 in sets against Chris Dobey. The Brabander lost his last two World Cup finals; he last became world champion in 2019.
“I think I have shown again that I am there at the most important moments,” Van Gerwen said afterwards. He is proud, despite his self-confessed sloppy play at times. “No matter how well you threw, if you win the semi-finals you should be proud of yourself.”
Van Gerwen ‘sloppy at times’ but proud of returning to the darts World Cup finals
Dobey made it to the last four for the first time, Van Gerwen showed him on Thursday evening what is required in this phase of the tournament.
Nervous
After the Englishman had nervously thrown the first darts into the board, the three-time world champion immediately scored the maximum score of 180 and took the initiative.
Dobey had plenty of chances in the second set, but let Van Gerwen escape. The 34-year-old former road worker from Newcastle took the third set, with good finishes from 170 (the ‘Big fish’ in darts jargon) and 108.
Maintaining that spectacular level turned out to be too ambitious for ‘Hollywood’. Van Gerwen finished again, without playing at the top of his game all evening. In the quarter-finals, Van Gerwen was tested more by Callan Rydz. That victory once again gave the bravura man the confidence that he can leave London with the main prize.
On Friday evening he will go for his fourth Sid Waddell trophy. Van Gerwen previously won the World Cup in 2014, 2017 and 2019. He lost the final in 2013, 2018 and 2023.
Second final in a row for Littler
The 17-year-old Littler was much too strong for his 22-year-old compatriot Stephen Bunting in the second semi-final of the evening. After winning the exciting first set, ‘The Nuke’ quickly led to Bunting.
The English match seemed to have been decided until ‘The Bullet’ struck for the first time in the fifth set. But Littler’s lead was no longer in danger due to his high scores (an average of more than 104 per three arrows).
Littler returns where his big breakthrough last year faltered. The debutant lost the final to Luke Humphries at the previous World Cup and showed in the rest of 2024 that he is certainly not a one-hit wonder. On Friday he will compete again with Van Gerwen for the main prize.
