Van Gerwen on beating Taylor’s 16 world titles: ‘You have to be realistic and say probably no one is ever going to be a 16-time World Champion again’

For Van Gerwen, one of those is Phil Taylor’s 16 World titles. He said in the run up to the PDC World Championship that he had set himself the TV titles as a goal; as the World Championship one is not realistic according to the World Number One.

He also harbours regret from their World Championship final meeting which he lost but admitted that he has to move on now.

"You always have to set yourself targets and one of mine is to beat Phil's record of TV titles," Van Gerwen continued.

"You have to be realistic and say probably no one is ever going to be a 16-time World Champion again, but to win 100 TV titles I think is definitely possible.

"To beat any record set by Phil Taylor would mean a lot to me because of how good he was for the sport both in darts and the mental aspect of the game.

"Unfortunately he beat me in our only world final and one of my big regrets is not being able to put that right.

"But you have to move on, I'm still doing okay so it's nothing to worry about."