Michael van Gerwen, a three-time world champion, has criticized Peter Wright’s claims about the World Darts Championship as “nonsense” and has labeled tournament favorite Luke Littler’s form as a “disappointment”.
Van Gerwen secured a spot in the quarter-finals by defeating Jeffrey de Graaf 4-2 on Monday night and subsequently expressed his disapproval of Wright’s statement that Rydz should be the favorite.
Despite being unseeded, Rydz has produced the two highest averages of the tournament so far – 107.06 against Romeo Grbavac in his first match, and 105.31 in a convincing 4-0 victory over 11th seed Dimitri Van den Bergh in the third round.
“After knocking out defending champion Luke Humphries in the fourth round, Wright said, ‘I want to play like Callan Rydz. He should be the favorite for this tournament. He’s playing superb darts and long may it carry on,'” Van Gerwen responded to Wright’s statement.
Wright had already created quite a stir by stating he was “ready to upset Luke Littler” and “here to upset Luke Humphries”, who accused him of “mind games” before losing to the two-time Alexandra Palace champion.
