"Michael was pissed that I had riled up the crowd so much" - Jules van Dongen details incident with van Gerwen at US Darts Masters

Jules van Dongen was recently a guest on the podcast Double Top. In it, the Dutch American talked about a variety of things, including a minor spat with Michael van Gerwen.

That's how we learned that Brendan Dolan is his favourite opponent. "He's just a really nice guy," Van Dongen said. "I've played against him four times now, two of which I won and two of which I lost. But he's always just as nice. That did stick with me. After all, you have a lot of players who are your best friend when they win, but when they lose they still don't look at you. That's never the case with Brendan."

Van Dongen got to compete in the 2022 US Darts Masters at the iconic Madison Square Garden. In the opening round, he went down 6-4 against Michael van Gerwen. "Michael was pissed that I had riled up the crowd so much. On the stage itself it wasn't too bad, although even then he was yelling 'he's a Dutchman' towards the audience."

"But backstage he was really irritated. He didn't like it at all that I had whipped up the crowd like that. I maybe should have won that match, because he didn't reach his best level. I had no wrong intentions about it either and didn't like that reaction of his. But in the end, we were both quick to forget it too."