Michael van Gerwen

Michael van Gerwen
Personal information
Nickname	Mighty Mike
Born	25 April 1989 (1989-04-25) (age 22) Boxtel, Netherlands
Home town	Boxtel Netherlands
Darts information
Playing darts since	2003
Darts	25.3g Michael van Gerwen darts
Laterality	Right-handed
Walk-on music	"Breathe" by The Prodigy
Organisation (see split in darts)
BDO	2003–2007
PDC	2007 – present
Current world ranking	34
BDO majors - best performances
World Ch'ship	1st Round, 2007
World Masters	Winner, 2006
World Darts Trophy	Semi final, 2006
Int. Darts League	Quarter final, 2006
PDC premier events - best performances
World Ch'ship	Last 32, 2009
World Matchplay	Last 16, 2007, 2008
Grand Slam	Group Stage 2007, 2008, 2010
European Ch'ship	Second Round 2009, 2010
UK Open	Last 32, 2007
Players Ch'ship Finals	Second Round 2010
Other tournament wins
Tournament	Years
Norway Open Northern Ireland Open Belgium Classics PDC Open Holland Welsh Open Starlight Open Westerlaan Open Europe Cup Youth Pairs Europe Cup Youth Team Europe Cup Youth Overall Europe Cup Youth Singles Dutch Youth Championship Taunton Players Championship	2005 2005 2006 2006, 2007 2006 2006 2006 2005, 2006 2005, 2006 2005, 2006 2006 2005, 2006 2009
Other achievements
Youngest ever winner, Winmau World Masters (2006) Youngest ever player at BDO World Championship (2007) Nine dart finish at Masters of Darts 17 February 2007

Michael van Gerwen (born 25 April 1989 in Boxtel, Netherlands) is a Dutch professional darts player, nicknamed Mighty Mike. He is the youngest player in history to win a major televised tournament in either the BDO or the PDC, winning the 2006 Winmau World Masters at the age of 17. He is also the youngest player ever to compete at the BDO version of the World Professional Darts Championship, competing in the 2007 tournament at the age of 17 years, 257 days.

Youth career

Michael reached the final of the Primus Masters Youth event at the age of just 14 in 2003. He then started to amass youth titles in 2005 including the German Open, German Gold Cup, Norway Open, Northern Ireland Open, Swedish Open and the Dutch National Youth Championship which he also defended in 2006. He also won the Men's events in the Norway and Northern Ireland Opens in the same year that he took the youth titles.

BDO career

He picked up several Open titles and rose up the BDO/WDF World Rankings having climbed as high as third, even before he reached his 18th birthday.

Michael reached the semi-finals of the Bavaria World Darts Trophy in 2006. Despite losing to Martin Adams, the Dutch youngster came within one dart of the perfect nine dart finish, just missing double twelve. He did manage the highest possible checkout of 170 during the tournament.

He managed to eclipse that performance at the 2006 Winmau World Masters by becoming the youngest ever champion. Having trailed 1–4 and 2–5 to Adams, he came back to win the title and take Eric Bristow's record as the youngest ever winner at the age of 17 years 174 days.

His early career success led to inevitable speculation that he may join the other professional circuit of darts, the Professional Darts Corporation. However, during the 2006 World Darts Trophy, van Gerwen held a press conference to make it clear that he wanted to stay with the BDO/WDF. [1] He also finished top of the DDF (Dutch Darts Federation) Rankings – which would have secured him a place at the PDC World Championship if he chose to accept. He had already committed to playing at Lakeside, so the place went to Rico Vonck who finished second in the rankings.

Van Gerwen was the bookmakers pre-tournament favourite to win the 2007 Lakeside World title, but his hopes were ended in the first round by Gary Robson.

On the night of the 2007 BDO World Championship Final it was announced on Dutch television that van Gerwen, along with Jelle Klaasen and Vincent van der Voort would be switching to the Professional Darts Corporation.

PDC career

Michael started at 88 in the PDC World Rankings. Although he was a BDO player he was eligible for certain PDC events in his home country even before he switched to the PDC. This included the Open Holland in 2006, in which he took the title.^[1]

He made his PDC debut on 20 January at the Stan James Players Championships in Gibraltar and beat Andy Hamilton before losing in the last 16 to fellow countryman Roland Scholten. In the second Players Championship the following day, he beat Raymond van Barneveld in the early rounds only to lose to Alan Warriner-Little in the quarter finals.

He followed up his victory over van Barneveld by beating 13 times World Champion Phil Taylor by 3 sets to 0 on the opening night of the Masters of Darts tournament. All three sets went to a deciding leg which van Gerwen clinched with 14, 12 and 12 darts. He went on to reach the semi-final of the tournament and achieved a perfect nine dart finish against van Barneveld, but lost the match.^[2]

Michael has yet to deliver any success on in UK-televised tournaments, having made his debut at the 2007 UK Open falling in the last 32 to Colin Osborne. He failed to qualify for the 2007 Las Vegas Desert Classic and was defeated in round two of the World Matchplay in Blackpool by Ronnie Baxter 12–14, having been one leg from victory at 12–10. One of the Dutchman's more impressive achievements on Sky however came in a 2008 PDC World Darts Championship first round defeat to Taylor; notably he had 1 dart to win the match and ultimately knock out the 13 time world champion, and end a phenomenal record of Taylor of reaching every PDC World Championship Final. However, Taylor's record was later ended in the Quarter Final losing 5–4 in sets to Wayne Mardle.

Michael ended his long wait for a tournament victory by beating his Dutch compatriot Vincent van der Voort 6–3 in the final of the Players Championship in Taunton on 11 April 2009 and earned him £6,000 towards the Order of Merit.

van Gerwen was defeated 6–4 by Arron Monk in the final of the inaugural PDC Under-21 World Championship during the 2011 PDC World Championship.

Majors (1)

World Masters

Winner (1)

Year	Championship	Opponent in Final	Score in Final
2006	Winmau World Masters	Martin Adams	7–5

References

1. ^ Open Holland 2006 Report
2. ^ van Gerwen's 9-dart finish at 2007 Masters of Darts

External links

• Michael van Gerwen official web site
• Michael van Gerwen's profile and stats on Darts Database

Persondata
Name	Gerwen, Michael van
Alternative names
Short description	Dutch darts player
Date of birth	April 25, 1989
Place of birth	Boxtel, Netherlands
Date of death
Place of death