Van Gerwen on World Darts Championship debut against Taylor: "You want to prove yourself"

Michael van Gerwen made his debut at the PDC World Darts Championship in style during the 2008 edition. Then 18-years-old he missed several match darts against Phil Taylor who later took the game to him.

"That was a match for me where I actually had nothing to lose", he reflects on the podcast Everyone Loves Van Darts. "I was quite open-minded, but then you have to win a match like that. At such a moment you have to take the positive out of it, I have done that ever since.”

An 'uninhibited' Van Gerwen put Taylor under real pressure, but could not prevent The Power from turning a 2-1 deficit into a 3-2 victory after a tie-break. Despite the fact that the Dutchman had little to lose, there was still a lot of tension in the game. “You want to prove yourself, because you know what you are capable of. It was not the first time I played against him, I had even beaten him once. Matches against him are always special, because of course he is a legend in the sport.”