Darts World Cup: Favorite van Gerwen fails – Littler’s fairy tale continues

Mit favorite Michael van Gerwen was completely unexpectedly eliminated from the Darts World Cup in London. The 34-year-old Dutchman surprisingly lost his quarter-final against England outsider Scott Williams 3:5 on Monday evening and will therefore not win the World Cup title for the fifth year in a row. Mighty Mike, as van Gerwen is called, had so far walked through the tournament and won eleven out of eleven possible sets in his first three games.

Even the dream semi-final against England's Luke Humphries won't work. Van Gerwen made a strange appearance at Alexandra Palace. The 2014, 2017 and 2019 world champion made a few mistakes on the doubles courts in the first sets. As the game progressed, the scoring became increasingly weaker. Van Gerwen often didn't even hit the big single numbers. The defeat against the unseeded Williams was the logical consequence.

There is always a kebab as a reward

He caused a stir during the World Cup with a World War comparison, but has since apologized several times. Before van Gerwen, he had already defeated three other ranked professionals: Danny Noppert, Martin Schindler and Damon Heta. The semi-finals will take place on Tuesday (8.30 p.m./Sport1 and DAZN).

Meanwhile, darts teenager Luke Littler's unexpected run at the World Championships in London continues. On New Year's Day, the 16-year-old Englishman moved into the semi-finals with a confident 5-1 win over Northern Irishman Brendan Dolan. There, “The Nuke” (The Atomic Bomb) faces former world champion Rob Cross, who had previously won a memorable match against compatriot Chris Dobey 5:4.

Debutant Littler has only given four sets in all of his five World Cup games so far. The successes over Christian Kist (3:0), Andrew Gilding (3:1), Matt Campbell (4:1), Raymond van Barneveld (4:1) and now against veteran Dolan were all confident. As a reward after victories, Littler always treated himself to a kebab. Dolan, who had previously defeated former world champions Gary Anderson (Scotland) and Gerwyn Price (Wales), had no chance at Alexandra Palace on Monday.

Littler has been expected to win the world title since the Christmas break at the latest. At his first major tournament with the world association PDC, the man from near Liverpool excelled with his performances. In the world rankings, he immediately improved into the top 50. With a world title worth 500,000 pounds (almost 600,000 euros), Littler would even make it into the top ten.

The fact that the semi-final opponent on Tuesday (8.30 p.m. on Sport1 and DAZN) is called Cross and not Dobey was due to a fantastic comeback by the 2018 world champion. The 33-year-old won 5-4 on New Year's Day after being 4-0 down. For Dobey, the tournament, which had been so promising to date, in which he also defeated world champion Michael Smith from England 4-0 in the round of 16, ended in bitter disappointment.