Michael van Gerwen
2014 PDC World Darts Champion
Michael van Gerwen ( born April 25, 1989 in Boxtel, Netherlands ) is a Dutch professional darts player. He is the youngest player in the Dartgeschichte ever to win a BDO or PDC tournament. His nickname is " Mighty Mike". His running music is Seven Nation Army by The White Stripes. 2014 he won the PDC World Championship so far as the youngest player ever.
Youth career
Van Gerwen reached the final of the Primus Masters Youth 2003 at the age of 14 years. Then he began to win many youth titles, including the German Open 2005, the German Gold Cup 2005, the Norway Open 2005, the Northern Ireland Open 2005, the Swedish Open 2005 and the Dutch Youth Championship in 2005, which he won in 2006. He also won the Norway Open 2005 and Northern Ireland Open 2005 in the adult area.
Career at BDO
From 2003 to 2007 van Gerwen played at Dartverband BDO. He reached the semifinals of the Bavaria World Darts Trophy 2006. Though he lost here against Martin Adams, he played almost a nine dart finish and just missed the last dart at double - 12th He also played the highest possible checkout during the tournament with 170. In the rest of the season made it van Gerwen to preserve its good performance and became the youngest with 17 years and 174 days on Top at the Winmau World Masters 2006.
Given its good performance were rumors that van Gerwen would join the competing Dartverband PDC. During the World Darts Trophy 2006 he gave a press conference in which he denied all the rumors and confirmed that he would stay with the BDO. In addition, van Gerwen declined to participate in the PDC World Championship, where he as First prize the Dutch darts ranking would be allowed to participate. The resulting vacant starting place went to the runner- Rico Vonck.
Ahead of the BDO World Cup 2007 van Gerwen was traded by the bookmakers as a favorite, however, different in the first round against Gary Robson.
On the night of the finals of the World Championship Dutch television announced that van Gerwen would go along with Vincent van der Voort and Jelle Klaasen to the PDC.
Careers at the PDC
Van Gerwen first was number 88 in the PDC Order of Merit. Although he previously was still playing in the BDO, he was allowed a number of competitions the PDC in the Netherlands, among others, at the Netherlands Open 2006, participate, even before he joined the PDC.
On 20 January 2007 he had his debut at the Stan James Players Championship in Gibraltar and beat Andy Hamilton in the first round before losing in the second round against his compatriot Roland Scholten. The day after he won against Raymond van Barneveld in the first round and then lost in the quarterfinals against Alan Warriner -Little.
He continued his good form and beat Phil Taylor 3-0 at the Masters of Darts. All three sets were decided in the deciding leg, which van Gerwen with 14, 12 and 12 darts decided for themselves. In the semi-final against van Barneveld he finally played his first Neundarter, but still lost the game.
Until then, van Gerwen had no achievements in television. He made his debut at the UK Open 2007, where he lost in the round of 32 against Colin Osborne. However, for the Las Vegas Desert Classic in 2007, he could not qualify and lost in the second round of the World Matchplay in Blackpool against Ronnie Baxter with 12:14, when he was 12-10 in the lead, and thus only one leg was missing him to win the match. He delivered his best performance of the PDC World Darts Championship 2008, as if he indeed lost in the first round against Taylor, but had a Matchdart.
Van Gerwen ended his losing streak when he won 6-3 on April 11, 2009, compared Vincent van der Voort at the Players Championship in Taunton, which he earned £ 6000 for the Order of Merit.
In the first edition of the PDC U- 21 World Most shank he was defeated in the final, which was played in the run-up to the final of the PDC World Darts Championship 2011, the Englishman Arron Monk.
He threw the World Matchplay 2012, Neundarter in the second round against Steve Beaton and won the match with 13:9. In the semi-finals of the PDC World Championship 2013 he succeeded against James Wade another Neundarter. In the immediately following leg he had another chance at a perfect game, but missed the final double box. So get him 17 perfect darts in a row. It topped the previous record of Phil Taylor, who had thrown 2010 16 perfect darts. On January 1, 2013 Michael van Gerwen lost despite a 4-2 set lead the final of the World Cup against Phil Taylor still with 4:7 sets. He won the Premier League Darts 2013 in the final against Phil Taylor.
In the PDC World Championship 2014 he won the final on 1 January 2014 against the Scots Peter Wright his first world title and so also solved the previously leader Phil Taylor in the Order of Merit from.
Achievements
- 2005 - Northern Ireland Open
- 2005 - Norway Open
- 2006, 2007 - Open Holland
- 2006 - WDF Europe Youth Cup
- 2006 - Welsh Open
- 2006 - Winmau World Masters
- 2006 - World Darts Event
- 2008 - Gleneagle Irish Masters
- 2009 - PDPA Players Championship South West
- 2012 - PDC World Grand Prix 2012
- 2013 - 2nd PDC World Darts Championship
- 2013 - Premier League Darts
- 2013 - Players Championship Finals
- 2014 - PDC World Darts Championship