Fourth Straight Title For Comeback Kid Van Gerwen
Mighty Michael van Gerwen was crowned Unibet Masters champ for the fourth time and blasted: “I’m coming back stronger.”
The dynamic Dutchman overcome Raymond van Barneveld 11-9 in the final having recovered from slipping to a 4-1 early deficit in Milton Keynes last night.
But MVG came roaring back to blast past Barney to land the £60,000 prize and remarkably made it 72 successive wins on ITV Sport.
Van Gerwen admitted: “I had to find the extra gears, I was 4-1 and 8-5 down. Raymond played well, he was very constant and didn’t give a lot away, you need to do something special against him.
“If you give Raymond your finger, he takes your hand. But I always know I can do a little bit extra and I needed to in this final.
“It’s a huge tournament, start of the season. I played a phenomenal tournament, I’m proud of myself.
“Of course I had a big disappointment in the semi-finals of the World Championships. I missed six match darts. Of course that’s not the nicest thing. But you need to be strong and come back stronger.”
Barney said: “His 124 finish was nasty and that turned the game. It’s so hard to beat this man.
“For me it’s still unbelievable he’s not world champion. I had a good run to the final, I can work with that.”
Angry Gary Anderson blasted rival Gerwyn Price after another fiery clash in their Unibet Masters quarter-final.
The Flying Scotsman won 10-6 but gave the Welshman verbals after he appeared to be unhappy with Price leaving the oche slowly.
Anderson had hit six perfect darts but felt Price was in his eyeline after his seventh dart strayed into the one, and turned round to have words.
Ando said: “It was a struggle but I played well. I was holding my breath and you never hold your breath when you throw a dart. Yes it was good, but it hurt.
“You talk about gamesmanship, he’s one boy who doesn’t play gamesmanship, allegedly. If you can’t beat a man with a bad back then you better go back to the practice board, simple as that.
“I’ve struggled for a while now but we are getting through it. I was outside on my knees there in that match, having a wee break and it’s going to be tough.
“These long days will either kill me or cure me, one of the two.”
Anderson and Price are set to clash again in just a fortnight in the Unibet Premier League in Cardiff, which is lining up to be a cracker.
But the Scot admits that his back is a worry on the eve of the PL. He added: “I’m back seeing the doc of Tuesday but it’s a race against time to be fit.
“It’s going to take a few weeks to be 100 per cent again. It really isn’t the ideal preparation but I’ve just go to keep going and grit my teeth.
“It hurt tonight against Benito on Saturday night and hurt again when I played Gerwyn. I thought Benito was going to smash me all over the place. The last three or four months has been bad.
“I had to scrape against Benito. For some reason he always plays a good game but always seems to struggle against me. I don’t know why that is, I might be in his head from when he was younger.
“I just want to play. You get so annoyed when you don’t hit things you know you should be hitting. It gets to you.”
By Phil Lanning (@lannomedia)
Photography courtesy of Lawrence Lustig/PDC