Van Gerwen reflects after opening victory over Aspinall: "I'm feeling really good. I won a game with a lot of pressure on it"

Van Gerwen found some of his best darts for a while to win in the event for the first time since 2016 when he won it having lost to Jeffrey de Zwaan and Mervyn King the last two years and he didn't play in 2017.

For Mighty Mike who averaged 105 and hit six 180's, he had praise for his opponent who led the match to start it off before he kicked into gear and that he still is looking for improvement going into his tie with Jason Lowe.

"I'm feeling really good. I won a game with a lot of pressure on it. Nathan (Aspinall) is a guy who is on form at the moment, he's maybe not the biggest talent in the world but he's a fighter and he always gives everything every leg. That makes it difficult to play him because his will to win is really big," said Van Gerwen to Phill Barrs.

For myself I think it was a good game and from my perspective I can gain a lot of confidence from it. That's quite important."

"I started off quite poorly but that happens to me lately too often and I don't like that so next game I need to make sure I'm there from the start because everyone can see if I'm on my game, I'm on my game."

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