FUMING Michael van Gerwen claimed his fourth successive defeat to Luke Littler was “unacceptable”.
Twenty-two days after their meeting in the PDC World Championship final, the Dutchman was beaten 6-3 by the Nuke in his backyard of Den Bosch in the quarter-finals of the Dutch Darts Masters.
Littler was himself then sunk 7-6 by Stephen Bunting in the semis.
Last year’s champion MVG – he lives only 10 minutes from the venue – fell 3-0 down but pulled it back to 3-3, capitalising in leg five when Littler bust his score of five on double 17.
Van Gerwen, 35, lost to the 18-year-old in Amsterdam in September, Prague in October and then at Ally Pally on January 3 as they contested for the Sid Waddell Trophy.
This latest loss in his homeland continued the hoodoo at the hands of Littler.
The three-time world champion said: “I played terrible tonight. This performance was not acceptable.
“I was really focused all day and wanted to win this trophy so much.
“No matter how hard I tried I just couldn’t get them when I wanted them. I was lucky to be 3-3 – it could have been 6-0.”
Van Gerwen, the world No.3, was playing with a broken toe sustained in a freak accident on his recent family holiday to Thailand.
He said: “It’s annoying but you can’t do anything about it.
“It happened last week on holiday.
“Accidents can happen. I enjoyed my holiday. I definitely had a nice rest.”
[bc_video account_id=”5067014667001″ application_id=”” aspect_ratio=”16:9″ autoplay=”” caption=”Luke Littler’s journey from 13-year-old darts prodigy to 17-year-old world champion as he turns 18″ embed=”in-page” experience_id=”” height=”100%” language_detection=”” max_height=”360px” max_width=”640px” min_width=”0px” mute=”” padding_top=”56%” picture_in_picture=”” player_id=”default” playlist_id=”” playsinline=”” sizing=”responsive” video_id=”6367403064112″ video_ids=”” width=”640px”]Van Gerwen’s exit meant there would be a new winner of the Toon Greebe trophy, which is named after a local player who died in October 2023 aged 35.
Raymond van Barneveld, Holland’s most successful player, lost 6-5 in the quarters to Stephen Bunting but the contest saw 32 missed doubles across 11 legs.
[authenticated-scripts src=”%3Cscript%20class%3D%22palin-poll%22%20src%3D%22https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thesun.co.uk%2Fpollingwidgets%2Fv3%2Fwidget.js%3Fquestion_id%3D104257%26game%3Dpolling%22%3E%3C%2Fscript%3E” type=”embedded” width=”100″ /]Barney, 57, had hinted the previous day he might retire soon, saying: “Maybe only two or three years left in me.”