look. Ally Pally sensation: Michael van Gerwen eliminated after dramatic match against Williams | World Darts Championship

look. Williams' trick against an unrecognizable Van Gerwen

“New Year’s Eve without a wife and children,” said an emotional Van Gerwen after reaching the quarter-finals of the World Darts Championship for the 10th time. In the end, it all turned out to be for nothing. Van Gerwen said in advance that his next competitor would be the first dessert of 2024, but he choked.

In addition to 16-year-old Luke Littler, who reached the semi-finals of the World Cup of Darts on Monday afternoon, Scott Williams is this year's surprise at Alexandra Palace. The world No. 52 has not achieved anything noteworthy, but having already defeated Haruki Muramatsu, Dani Nobert, Martin Schindler and Damon Hita, he made a sensation with a capital S in the quarter-final against Van Gerwen.

Van Gerwen, who has yet to drop a set in a World Cup, has already had an exciting start. The Dutchman missed his first 11 (!) arrows in the doubles, although he scored 54 percent in doubles until the quarter-finals, the highest percentage among all participants.

From the second set onwards, Van Gerwen hit the throttle. He took the second set with an average of 116.71 (while Williams also played hard with an average of 108.18), and then took a mental blow in the third set with a Williams break, but van Gerwen was unable to capitalize on that break in the fourth set. . With an average of 77.94, the three-time world champion was forced to leave the fourth set to Williams and saw the Dutchman's anger increase. Not only because of his mistakes, but also because of Williams' behavior.

The Englishman is a showman. Earlier in the World Cup, he caused a stir when he made a comment after his win over Schindler about “winning both world wars”. The 33-year-old Darts player was immediately met with outrage and apologised. He also deleted his account on 'X', but he showed in the fourth round against Hita that he was not distracted by all the hype and against Van Gerwen he went even further.

Williams continued to do his job, seemingly unfazed by the Dutch world number two, and put Van Gerwen's back against the wall after the seventh set to make it 4-3. In the eighth set, the tension seemed tense for a moment, but in the end Shaggy finished the job against all expectations, which did not believe Van Gerwen and the entire world of darts.

And so after 2014, 2017 and 2019, Van Gerwen is still stuck with three world titles. I once said I wanted to win the World Cup once every two years. You have to dare to set this goal. There was also some time between my first and second world titles, so why has it been so long? “It doesn't concern me,” Van Gerwen said before the World Cup.

However, next year, it will be six (!) years since Mighty Mike called himself the best in the world. With the risk of not succeeding again, of course. Although almost all darts players, including Van Gerwen himself, agree. He doesn't buy anything for it now.