Darts is a sport that continues to grow and grow in popularity. One of the reasons for that is the brilliance of its number one ranked player, Dutchman Michael Van Gerwen.
Last night, he defeated the greatest player to ever play the sport; Phil Taylor by 16 legs to 13, to lift the Grand Slam trophy for the first time. That thrilling win, achieved by coming back from 4-1 and 7-3 down, means MVG (as the acronym goes) has now won every major Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) trophy. This is someone who doesn't turn 27 until April.
Back in January 2013, I wrote this piece after Van Gerwen reached the World Championship final for the first time, where he lost out to Taylor (http://www.ewansworldofsport.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/why-michael-van-gerwen-is-future-of.html). It's not very often I get sporting predictions right, but I was always confident of that one coming true.
Since losing that final, Van Gerwen has went onto win the World Championships, the Premier League, the World Matchplay, the Grand Prix (to add to a success in 2012), the UK Open, the European Championships twice, the Masters and now the Grand Slam. This is a man who just loves winning darts matches and trophies and right now as the World Championships loom on the horizon, he is going to take some beating.
During the Grand Slam, he averaged over 100 with every three darts thrown, in every one of the seven matches he played. Indeed, his average of 100.94 in the final was his lowest of the week which had peaked at an astonishing 111.05 in his 16-4 quarter final win over Kim Huybrechts on Saturday night. With those sort of averages, players are having to almost hit two big trebles just to live with him or be as equally lethal on the doubles, something Taylor didn't do as he missed 26 out of his 39 darts thrown at doubles. During his last three matches at the Grand Slam, Van Gerwen threw a remarkable 34 180's in total.
Not only has Van Gerwen won five major Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) tournaments during 2015, he has also reached the final of every major TV event after losing to Gary Anderson in the World Championship semi final on January 3. He is showing a remarkable degree of consistency that hasn't been seen in darts since Phil Taylor truly dominated the sport throughout the 1990's and 2000's.
The challenge now for Van Gerwen though is to become Taylor-esque and start winning the big PDC majors multiple times over and over. Time is certainly very much on his side. Whilst it would be astonishing if the Dutchman got anywhere near Taylor's record by the end of their respective careers, he has certainly got the talent to make a bid to become the second greatest darts player of all time.
Just look at Taylor's CV. He's won the World Championship on 16 occasions (he won the BDO in 1990 and 1992) before winning the PDC version 14 times between 1995 and 2013. He's won the World Matchplay 15 times, the Grand Prix 11 times, the UK Open five times, the Premier League six times since its debut in 2005 and the Grand Slam six times since its debut in 2007.
Van Gerwen might have won a lot this year, but he missed one out of every three doubles in the Grand Prix final which allowed Scotland's Robert Thornton to complete a famous 5-4 win. If Van Gerwen had won that, he'd be able to say he had won it three times in the last four years.
After a win in the Premier League in 2013, he has lost the last two finals to countryman Raymond Van Barneveld in 2014 and Anderson this year. Taylor won the event five out of six times between 2005-2010.
Van Gerwen's breakthrough success came at the Grand Prix in 2012 and he followed that up a month later with a final appearance in the Grand Slam, where an inspirational performance from Van Barneveld stopped him. The following two years though he lost at the second round and quarter final stages. Now he's finally won it, can he defend it in 2016 and beyond?
The same goes for the World Matchplay. Until his defeat in the semi finals this year Taylor hadn't lost a match at the Winter Gardens in Blackpool since 2007. Van Gerwen progressed from a semi final appearance in 2013, to runner up in 2014 to winning it this year. Now he needs to stay at the top.
And what of the World Championships which begin in London on December 17? He is certainly going to take some stopping in his current form, but Anderson showed last year that it can be done as did Taylor in the 2013 final. Van Gerwen has certainly cemented his place at the top of the rankings, but everyone is now gunning for him at the Alexandra Palace.
Darts has had many iconic figures over the years from Eric Bristow, Jocky Wilson and John Lowe in the 80s to Taylor and Dennis Priestley in the 90's. And Barneveld, John Part and the BDO's Andy Fordham and Martin Adams in the 2000's.
Van Gerwen now has the potential to join them. It will be fascinating to see him handle the pressure.
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