Michael van Gerwen has warned his World Championship final opponent that he "is not going to stop me" after the Dutchman romped past Dimitri Van den Bergh on Monday night.
'Mighty Mike' threw nine 180's and averaged over 108 as he made light work of the Belgian player, who was left fuming by both the nature of his 6-0 defeat and what he felt were inappropriate tactics by van Gerwen mid-match. It was a second successive whitewash for the three-time champion, after he put away Chris Dobey 5-0 in the last eight.
Tuesday night will represent a repeat of the 2019 final at the Ally Pally, with the now resounding favourite taking on Michael Smith. And Smith, who also lost out at the last stage last year to Peter Wright, has claimed it's a clash he's relishing.
He beat surprise package Gabriel Clemens 6-2 in his own final four match. Speaking afterwards, and prior to van Gerwen’s game with Ven den Bergh, he claimed: "I was in earlier in the practice room, Michael came over to me and said, 'This is the final we all want', me and him. I said the same thing to him.
"I think everyone wants to see me and Michael. I’m over the moon that I’m a back-to-back finalist here, my third one and the only thing that’s going through my head now is lifting the big one."
Smith's quotes were put to 'MVG' after his demolition show, and he refuted them: "That’s not true, that’s not true as well," he told reporters. "If I was in his position I know who I’d want to play." He did however, promise fans an exciting final against the 2022 Grand Slam of Darts winner: "Me and Michael know each other really well, we have such great battles against each other, for darts it will be a stunning final."
Van Gerwen will go in on the back of an incredible return to form in 2022, which saw him beat Joe Cullen to claim the Premier League title. He also prevailed over Gerwyn Price to be crowned World Matchplay champion.
He backed that up by winning the World Grand Prix and Players Championship Finals, as well as the Queensland Darts Masters down under. And his hopes in London were boosted by the quarter final exit of world No 1 Gerwyn Price, who bowed out against Clemens amid bizarre scenes.
The Welshman came out for the fifth set i n headphones in a bid to drown out the noise of the crowd. Van Gerwen has since had his say on the saga, arguing such stunts need to be banned as the crowd is "part of the game."
