Van Gerwen withdraws from PDC World Darts Championship due to COVID-19

By Sports Desk December 28, 2021

Three-time champion Michael van Gerwen has withdrawn from the PDC World Darts Championship after testing positive for coronavirus on Tuesday.

The Dutchman's positive test was revealed ahead of his match against Chris Dobey, who receives a bye into the last 16 at Alexandra Palace.

World number three Van Gerwen's compatriots Raymond van Barneveld and Vincent van der Voort also returned positive tests at the tournament in London.

Five-time champion Van Barneveld tested positive following his second-round defeat to 2018 winner Rob Cross.

Van der Voort was unable to play James Wade on Monday after discovering that he had contracted COVID-19.

The PDC stated that the evening session on Tuesday would go ahead, with Cross up against Daryl Gurney and 2020 champion Peter Wright meeting Damon Heta.

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    Littler never looked back after edging out Luke Humphries in a last-leg decider of the opening quarter-final at the SSE Arena, which ended the world champion’s three-night winning Premier League run.

    The 17-year-old – who has won titles at the Bahrain Masters, PDC Players Championship and Belgian Open in a breakout year – followed up with an impressive 6-3 win over Michael Van Gerwen, who had beaten him on night two in the Berlin final.

    ‘The Nuke’ landed a 136 checkout in first leg of the final, then just missed finishing off 170 in second before Aspinall broke throw as he built a 3-1 lead.

    Littler, though, fought back to level with a showpiece bullseye-25-bullseye finish – which got a high-five from close-friend Aspinall – and then pushed on to within one leg of victory at 5-3.

    Aspinall dug deep to break back in the next, but Littler eventually got the job done on double 10.

    Overall victory on night nine moves Littler up to second in the table, four points behind Humphries, while Aspinall now sits in fourth, the last of the play-off places.

    “I am just happy to win my first one,” Littler said on Sky Sports.

    “People may have seen I have changed my throw to take that little bit of extra time then releasing the next two. I have put more practice in and it has paid off.

    “I can’t wait for next week (in Manchester). I know I have got Michael (Van Gerwen) in the first round, but Nathan will obviously enjoy it also in his home town.”

    Aspinall had reached his fourth final of this year’s Premier League campaign with a 6-2 win over Peter Wright, in which he produced 14 scores over 100.

    Earlier in the other quarter-finals, Premier League title holder Van Gerwen came from 4-2 down against former world champion Michael Smith to win the last four legs, securing victory on a 150 checkout.

    Aspinall had seen off Gerwyn Price, last year’s Belfast winner, in a last-leg decider to leave the Welshman further adrift of the play-offs, while Wright beat 2018 world champion Rob Cross 6-3.

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    The 17-year-old, who had dropped to fifth in the Premier League table, after last week’s quarter-final defeat to Michael Smith in Dublin, forced an early break to open up a 2-0 lead.

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    The 29-year-old won the first four legs to take control of the showdown against Smith and wrapped up victory with double 16.

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    “The standard has been high. I’m not unbeatable but I’m putting in that stage of performance where it takes something big to beat me and nobody has done that so far.

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    Humphries extended his lead to seven points as Michael van Gerwen was beaten 6-5 by Gerwyn Price, who ended a run of four successive quarter-final losses.

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