Michael Van Gerwen has won the 2024 Dutch Darts Masters on Saturday night, avenging his defeat against Luke Littler by winning 8-6 in front of a partisan home country crowd in the Netherlands. This is now just the third time that seventeen-year-old Littler has tasted defeat at a PDC televised event, having lost at last year's UK Open to Adam Gawlas, and of course finishing as a runner up to Luke Humphries at the World Championship.
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Van Gerwen, the current world number 2, started his tournament campaign off in fine fashion, dispatching compatriot and close friend Vincent Van der Voort 6-1 in Friday night's main event. He was then forced into a last leg decider against the legendary Raymond Van Barneveld, recording a ton plus average to just barely scrape through to the semi-finals.
There he met yet another Dutchman, exacting a measure of revenge on young Gian Van Veen following MVG's loss to the World Youth Championship finalist at the 2023 European Championship. Van Gerwen prevailed 7-4 to book his place against Luke Littler.
Littler enjoyed a far more comfortable route to the final, beating a continually out-of-sorts Dirk Van Duijvenbode in the opening round, before besting the reigning World Champion Luke Humphries in another last leg shootout. Much like the semi-final at last week's event in Bahrain, Littler then met Gerwyn Price and beat him once again to make it back-to-back finals in the World Series.
In a far more even, titanic tussle than in Bahrain, Littler and Van Gerwen went almost blow for blow, 180 for 180, with the Dutch legend just narrowly opening up a 7-6 lead in a race to 8. Left with 170, Littler came within millimetres of the bullseye to level the game once again, allowing MVG to take out 85 and win the Dutch Darts Masters.
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Van Gerwen now controls all the momentum heading into this year's Premier League campaign, where he will be looking to extend his record of seven Premier League titles. MVG will kick off his PL campaign against Michael Smith, who suffered an opening round exit to the aforementioned Van Veen at the Dutch Darts Masters.
Should Mighty Mike get past Bully Boy, one of Littler or Humphries will await him in Thursday night's semi-final, where Littler will be making his Premier League debut in a direct rematch from the Alexandra Palace final from just a month prior.
More and more fans are raising questions about the standards of this year's Premier League, as the out-of-form trio of Peter Wright, Michael Smith and Nathan Aspinall have been given spots over arguably more consistent players like Chris Dobey, who featured in last year's event and won the opening night in Belfast. and Stephen Bunting. Wright will kick off his PL season against Rob Cross, whilst Aspinall will look to upset Price.
By Jaspar Shepherdson
(@jasparshepmedia on X/Twitter and Instagram)
Image Credit: Sandro Halank on Wikipedia
🟢 MvG IS THE BOSS OF DEN BOSCH! 🇳🇱
— PDC Darts (@OfficialPDC) January 27, 2024
Michael van Gerwen defeats Luke Littler 8-6 in the Dutch Darts Masters final to clinch glory on home soil! 🏆
The Dutchman had to produce his best display of the tournament to edge out the teenager in a thrilling final! 👏
#DutchDarts24 pic.twitter.com/IA0s0kklOL
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