Gary Anderson can create darts chaos – ‘Worst thing that can happen’ | Other | Sport
The teenager remains the bookmakers’ favourite, but Van der Voort anticipates chaos for the PDC should the 55-year-old claim the trophy.
The Dutchman told the Darts Draait Door podcast: “That would be fantastic, of course. If he beats Michael, I hope he becomes world champion. Then we’ll see the PDC not have the world champion in the Premier League and not in the World Series. That’s the worst thing that can happen to the PDC. As an organisation, that’s a nightmare.”
Anderson has reduced his commitments recently, with family responsibilities and work obligations meaning he prefers to limit his travel schedule.
Whilst he has previously triumphed in the Premier League, he hasn’t participated in the 17-week extravaganza for the past couple of seasons and insisted he wants no part of the competition. Anderson has been absent from World Series events in locations far away from home.
He’s previously travelled to places such as Australia, New Zealand and Dubai, but a dip in his rankings has also contributed to his lack of participation.
However, he’s turning back the clock at this year’s tournament and Van der Voort can see his class shining through ahead of the showdown with Van Gerwen. He said: “He just kept hitting those 180s.
“Truly impressive. He really seems to be playing this tournament with a different intention.”
Van Gerwen is eagerly anticipating the match-up and said: “When you play Gary, there’s always room for fireworks. We always play good against each other, most of the time at least.
“Everyone’s saying the old Gary is back. He’s averaging 102/103, I’m averaging about 99/100 and I am just doing okay, so I think that’s a good sign for me. We’ve known each other a long time. The first time I played Gary was probably 22 or 23 years ago.
“We know exactly what we have to do to beat each other. We’ve had so many great battles and I hope we’re going to have another one. If I can’t enjoy games like this anymore, that’s the day I am going to retire. That’s a promise.
“Games against players like Gary are what you want. You want to play against the big boys because if you win games like this, it gives you confidence for the next rounds.
“But first you need to focus on this one. I have to sharpen myself a lot because Gary Anderson is a player who’s in probably one of his best performances he’s been doing in the World Championship for the last few years, So I need to make sure I put him under pressure as much as I can.”
