Van Gerwen puts on the darts crown

The 29-year-old Dutchman easily won the World Cup final, traditionally played on New Year's Day, at London's Alexandra Palace against English outsider Michael Smith 7-3 and secured prize money of 500.000 pounds (around 555.000 euros).

Thanks to this undisputed success, “Mighty Mike” is the only player alongside the departed legend Phil Taylor (14 titles) to have won the coveted Sid Waddell Trophy more than twice at the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) World Championships. The 28-year-old Smith missed the big coup in his first World Cup final after he had rarely matched his strong form from previous games.

Third world title The 32nd meeting between the two finalists was therefore a clear affair. Van Gerwen, who had never dropped more than one set in the previous five games of the tournament that lasted more than three weeks, took advantage of his opponent's initial nervousness and quickly took a 4-0 lead. As soon as the “Bully Boy” got stronger, van Gerwen, who was by no means outstanding, tightened the reins. Even when Smith was able to reduce the score to 2:4, the Dutchman kept a cool head and ultimately secured the 7:3 victory.

Van Gerwen became the youngest PDC world champion with his first triumph in 2014 in the final against Peter Wright. In 2017 he repeated the title win against Anderson, who was 19 years older.

Defending champion Rob Cross (England) had lost all chances of winning the World Championship title again at the 26th edition of the PDC World Championships early on due to his exit in the round of XNUMX.

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Van Gerwen puts on the darts crown

Top favorite Michael van Gerwen has been crowned darts world champion for the third time after 2014 and 2017.

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