Van Gerwen reflects after opening victory over Klaasen: ‘I hate him so I didn’t want to lose to him‘

Michael van Gerwen saw off Jelle Klaasen on the opening night of action at the PDC World Championship.

Despite that Van Gerwen was pushed all the way by ‘The Cobra’ and he wasn’t pleased with his opening performance.

MVG and Klaasen are known to have past issues and he added that this spurred him onto victory.

“I think I played a poor game, it wasn’t there tonight,” admitted Van Gerwen to LiveDarts.

“Me and Jelle had a past, I hate him so I didn’t want to lose to him.

“I was trying really hard, probably too hard but I’m through and that’s all that matters.

“But even when you’re not playing well you have to hit the big shots at the right time and I managed to do that tonight.”

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