Michael van Gerwen reached the fourth round of the World Darts Championship in London on Wednesday in sensational fashion. With an average of a whopping 107.66 for three arrows, the Dutchman was 4-2 too strong for Mensur Suljovic.
The 33-year-old Van Gerwen faced a significant amount of opposition from Suljovic, who was seventeen years his senior, number thirty on the placing list. The Austrian hit an impressive 65 percent in his doubles and also averaged a good 98.90.
Van Gerwen won the first two sets with an average of 115.84, but then Suljovic brutally recovered. De Brabander had to leave the third set to Suljovic and came close to the Serbian born also winning the fourth set. But Van Gerwen shot 180 twice in the decider started by Suljovic and made it 3-1.
In the fifth set, “Mighty Mike” had a chance to win the match at 121. But instead of hitting a hit, Van Gerwen deliberately dropped 32. He just hadn’t counted on Suljovic striking out 161 an innings later. The Austrian then returned to 3-2.
Van Gerwen then broke Suljovic in the third leg of the fifth set and didn’t give up the leg he had started. With that he decided the best game of this World Cup so far.
In the fourth round, Van Gerwen could face his compatriot Dirk van Duijvenbode. ‘Aubergenius’ has yet to beat Ross Smith on Thursday afternoon. Vincent van der Voort is the only other Dutchman still in the tournament and will play against Luke Humphries on Thursday night.
Van Gerwen, who started the tournament with a resounding win over Lewis Williams, is the favorite to win the overall win in ‘Ally Pally’. This year he won the Premier League, the World Matchplay and the Players Championship Finals, among others. A year ago he had to withdraw from the World Cup due to a corona infection.
Earlier in the day, Danny Noppert (4-2 loss to Alan Soutar) and two-time world champion Gary Anderson (4-1 loss to Chris Dobey), among others, were eliminated. The evening program concludes with the match between Michael Smith and Martin Schindler.
