MICHAEL VAN GERWEN has brutally labelled a darts rival as a “pub player”… but insists he is not being harsh.
The savage dig came after the three-time darts world champion defeated Pero Ljubic at the Poland Darts Masters on Friday.
GettyMichael van Gerwen gave a savage assessment of darts rival Pero Ljubic[/caption]
Instagram / @peroljubic78Van Gerwen said the Polish star was a ‘pub player’[/caption]
Van Gerwen faced his opponent in the first round, winning 6-4.
However, the 36-year-old – by his own admission – did not have a great game as he averaged 84.71 and landed six out of 19 checkout attempts at 31.6 per cent.
Fortunately for the world No3, his rival did not fare any better at the oche.
Ljubic, 47, put up an average of 82.69 but had an even worse checkout rate with just four of 13 attempts at 30.8 per cent.
And Mighty Mike – blunt as ever – did not sugarcoat his opinions of the game, including giving Ljubic both barrels.
As per Oche, he said: “It wasn’t a good game at all. Pero needs to be happy that he won one leg.
“Pero is not a good player. Pero is a pub player — we all know that.
“I’m not harsh — he is a lovely man but when you throw treble 12 for treble 20 then you need to go back to the dartboard.
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“Did you ever see me do that? I can only blame myself, I didn’t play well.
“I’m the one to blame. But I made Pero look good today. Pero won a few legs and it feels like his birthday!
“I was going to win anyway. You want honest answers — I give you honest answers. Tomorrow is a different story — then I am up against the big boys.”
Previously, a match involving the Pole was compared to “pub darts” after a horror leg where he and Niko Springer took 26 darts to finish a leg at the Players Championship 19 in June.
His victory set up a quarter-final against Rob Cross.
The first matches of the quarter-finals will take place from 6.10pm on Saturday.
You can keep up with all the action by following SunSport’s live blog of the event HERE.
List of all-time Darts World Champions
BELOW is a list of darts world champions by year.
The list does not include winners from the pre-Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) era or BDO world champions.
That means Raymond van Barneveld, for example, is only listed once – Barney also won four BDO titles – and none of Eric Bristow’s five BDO titles are included.
1994 – Dennis Priestley
1995 – Phil Taylor
1996 – Phil Taylor (2)
1997 – Phil Taylor (3)
1998 – Phil Taylor (4)
1999 – Phil Taylor (5)
2000 – Phil Taylor (6)
2001 – Phil Taylor (7)
2002 – Phil Taylor (8)
2003 – John Part
2004 – Phil Taylor (9)
2005 – Phil Taylor (10)
2006 – Phil Taylor (11)
2007 – Raymond van Barneveld
2008 – John Part (2)
2009 – Phil Taylor (12)
2010 – Phil Taylor (13)
2011 – Adrian Lewis
2012 – Adrian Lewis (2)
2013 – Phil Taylor (14)
2014 – Michael van Gerwen
2015 – Gary Anderson
2016 – Gary Anderson (2)
2017 – Michael van Gerwen (2)
2018 – Rob Cross
2019 – Michael van Gerwen (3)
2020 – Peter Wright
2021 – Gerwyn Price
2022 – Peter Wright (2)
2023 – Michael Smith
2024 – Luke Humphries
2025 – Luke Littler
Most World Titles
14 – Phil Taylor
3 – Michael van Gerwen
2 – John Part, Adrian Lewis, Gary Anderson, Peter Wright
1 – Dennis Priestley, Raymond van Barneveld, Rob Cross, Gerwyn Price, Michael Smith, Luke Humphries, Luke Littler
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