Van Gerwen berates display after opening scare at Queensland Darts Masters: "It was absolutely shocking"

Michael van Gerwen was not at his best as he had to comeback from 4-2 down to see off Bailey Marsh at the Queensland Darts Masters with the 20-year-old debutant making an impression in a 6-5 defeat to the recent World Matchplay champion.

But Van Gerwen berated his poor display and was far from happy with his opener in Townsville.

"I wasn't really at my best but I was close," said Van Gerwen to Online Darts. "I was 90% of my best, no nine percent. Seriously it was absolutely shocking. But I gave him even the feeling he could play darts, that wasn't great but you can only blame yourself."

"But I'm not 100% acclimatized towards this time zone yet. You could see in the other games that other people have got difficulties as well but you have to do the right thing for yourself and just win the game. That's enough."

He spoke on going on holiday after the World Matchplay and that practice has gone well in the run-up but acclimatising to new time zones and travel was an issue.

"Practicing went really well in the last few days but today was a bit slow. Also a bit tired to be fair so I hope it's better tomorrow. I feel good and that's the worst thing so then you also want to show it to the rest. That's sometimes a bit frustrating."

While to be back in Australia for the first time since 2019, 'Mighty Mike' was pleased to return to a usual haunt on the World Series before COVID.

"It's a long time since we've been here, it's really good. Only the crowd is a bit flat here, their first time here so they don't know what to expect so they have to get on with it but on the other hand, I feel good to be back here."