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Van Gerwen to meet teenager Littler in darts final
AAP • January 3rd, 2025 12:10 pm
AP PHOTO
Michael van Gerwen has cruised to his seventh PDC World Darts Championship final after beating England's Chris Dobey 6-1 at London's Alexandra Palace.
The three times world champion, whose last title in the tournament came in 2019, was a man on a mission on Thursday as he piled the pressure on an opponent making only his first semi-final appearance.
Van Gerwen finished with a 98.84 average, with eight 180s and a stunning 158 checkout in the sixth set, to Dobey's 94.77. The No.3 seed took just six minutes to win the opening set.
"We're not even close yet. We're still so far away ... the title is far away. That's what you have to keep telling yourself," he said ahead of a final clash with 17-year-old sensation Luke "The Nuke" Littler.
Littler routed Stephen Bunting 6-1 in Thursday's other semi-final to give himself another shot at the title, one year after his defeat to Luke Humphries.
"A 99 average is not that bad," said Van Gerwen.
"I'm happy with the performance. I wasn't playing as explosive as the last game but I was efficient.
"It's my passion, it's my life, of course after my family. I really enjoyed this."
Littler surged to a 4-0 lead before "The Bullet" fired back to take the fifth set and prevent a whitewash.
Bunting, 39, had a golden chance to secure back-to-back sets but failed to seize it as his opponent fired back and went 5-1 up with a brutal bullseye checkout.
There was no coming back from that, with Littler on another level and hitting another bullseye for 170 to go 2-1 up in the last set before punching his ticket to a second successive final.
"I can't wait for tomorrow night ... if we both turn up like we did tonight, it's going to be really good," Littler said of Friday's (UK time) final.
"As soon as (2024 champion) Luke Humphries went out, that's what everyone was looking at but I just had to focus on the quarter-finals and semi-finals. Now I've done that, I can focus on Michael tomorrow.
"We all know he's hunting for that other (fourth) world title. I'm hunting for my first."
