Michael van Gerwen was eliminated on Saturday in the quarter finals of the Nordic Darts Masters. The number three in the world lost in Copenhagen in a thriller to the later tournament winner Peter Wright (9-10).
The 33-year-old Van Gerwen played his first tournament since he lost to Michael Smith in the World Cup final at the beginning of this month. De Brabander only arrived in Denmark on Friday afternoon, after he had celebrated a holiday in Curaçao with his family.
Despite his “worst preparation ever” Van Gerwen settled on Friday evening in the first round of the Nordic Darts Masters with the Swede Andreas Harrysson (6-3). A day later, ‘Mighty Mike’ played better against Wright, but that was not enough for the win against the two-time world champion .
Van Gerwen took a 4-3 lead, only to lose four legs in a row (4-7). The Dutchman came back nicely to 9-9, but in the decisive nineteenth leg he could no longer find the triple 20. Wright took advantage and finished the game with his third match dart. “Maybe I missed some sharpness in the last leg,” Van Gerwen wrote on Twitter.
The three-time world champion had a slightly higher average than Wright (98.25 to 97.49), while his throwout percentage was clearly higher (45 to 29 percent). Wright only had almost twice as many chances for a double. The Scot won against Van Gerwen for the first time in more than a year.
Wright later defeated world champion Smith (11-8) in the semifinals on Saturday. In the final battle, he then convincingly defeated former world champion Gerwyn Price: 11-5