Mardle predicts Van den Bergh to become world number one within two or three years: "I think he's that good"

Dimitri van den Bergh reached the final of the World Matchplay falling to an incredible Peter Wright display in the defence of the Phil Taylor Trophy.

For Wayne Mardle though, he believes the future is very much bright for 'The Dreammaker' and in a piece discussing World Matchplay talking points for Sky Sports, he believes he could be World Number One in short order.

"I've kind of created one talking point in my own mind I think and that's the potential of Dimitri Van den Bergh. We know he was World Matchplay champion. I think he can be, maybe not the next world No 1 but a No 1, I think he's got that in him," said Mardle to Sky Sports.

"We know those that win the World Championship normally end up world No 1, what I'm saying is I think in the next two maybe three years he gets that No 1, I really do, I think he's that good. And those around him when you look at the rankings and this is no disrespect to them, are there actually any on the up like him? I'm going to suggest no."

"He's world No 5 at the moment, yes there's a giant step from five to one, I'm not suggesting it's going to happen overnight, but the way he can deal with being behind, we're seeing a different way of him winning a game (against Ratajski), the positives just outweigh the negatives. That for me is one that I don't think anybody has spoken about before. It's 'Price is playing great, he's a young man, he's the world champ, he's world No 1', yeah but things don't last forever. Things do change."