{"id":237203,"date":"2026-01-17T00:40:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-17T00:40:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/237203\/"},"modified":"2026-01-17T00:40:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-17T00:40:07","slug":"bahrain-darts-masters-2026-round-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/237203\/","title":{"rendered":"Bahrain Darts Masters 2026 Round-up"},"content":{"rendered":"

Michael van Gerwen has begun the 2026 World Series of Darts campaign with success in the Bahrain Darts Masters<\/a>. He takes down the new Dutch number one Gian van Veen 8-6 in a thrilling final which followed a thrilling session of darts.Van Gerwen<\/a> was looking to get back to his best after an up
\nand down 2025, with the highlight coming in the World Series of Darts Finals, in
\nwhich he defeated Luke Littler in the final to end his major drought.<\/p>\n

He took down a last year\u2019s champion Stephen Bunting 6-4
\nbefore comfortably dispatching last year\u2019s runner-up Gerwyn Price 7-2.<\/p>\n

The Welshman had gone into the match just after defeating
\nthe world number one and two-time world champion Luke Littler 6-2 but was unable
\nto do anything about the Dutchman. There was also a disappointing early exit
\nfor the world number two Luke Humphries, who lost five legs on the spin against
\nAspinall in the quarter-final stages.<\/p>\n

Van Veen is coming off the back of a maiden PDC World Darts
\nChampionship final and goes into the match against van Gerwen as the Dutch
\nnumber one. His quarter-final tie against Danny Noppert was interrupted by an
\nelectrical problem which saw all the lights go off. This did not faze van Veen,
\nwho came back and won the rest of the legs in a 6-1 trouncing of his World Cup
\npartner.<\/p>\n

He followed that with a convincing 7-4 victory over Nathan
\nAspinall. He turned on the afterburners towards the end of the match with a crucial
\nbreak, before snuffing out any possible fightback from \u2018The Asp\u2019 to confirm his
\nspot in the final.<\/p>\n

Van Gerwen takes the early advantage<\/p>\n

Van Veen started the faster, streaking out in front in the
\nfirst leg while van Gerwen straggled behind. A 180 left double 18, but he could
\nnot take it out. \u2018Mighty Mike\u2019 capitalised on this, taking out 130 on the bull
\nto stride into a break advantage. He reverted to his favourite double 16 to
\ndouble his advantage a leg later.<\/p>\n

A second break and a third consecutive leg was done in
\nscintillating fashion. After straying into the treble 5, he pinned treble 20
\nbefore reverting down the board to double 19. It should have been a 4-0 lead,
\nbut after three missed chances on double 16, \u2018The Giant\u2019 found the segment just
\nnorth of that to clinch one of the breaks back. He moved within a single leg
\nafter finding a 12-darter, but then van Gerwen went on better, going out in 11
\nto solidify his advantage in this world class final.<\/p>\n

Van Veen fights back, but not enough to topple van Gerwen<\/p>\n

Van Gerwen went into the interval averaging over 109 and
\ncontinued his impressive form after it. Van Veen missed tops for a 160 and was
\npunished by his opponent with an 83 checkout on double nine, letting out a huge
\nroar.<\/p>\n

This was backed with another hold and another roar, as he
\nsailed into a 6-2 lead. This was instantly changed to 6-3 with a 16-darter. He
\npinned tops the first time of asking once more to get one of the breaks back
\nneeded if he wanted to lift this title.<\/p>\n

A third consecutive leg moved van Veen within one after an off
\nleg from van Gerwen, but a simply exceptional 103 checkout from the 2024
\nfinalist saw him move within one from lifting the title.<\/p>\n

It was so close. Both players were averaging almost exactly
\na ton, with the next leg pivotal. Experience would prevail, with van Gerwen
\nracing ahead before taking out 66 in two to seal an incredible 17th
\nWorld Series title, and first in Bahrain.<\/p>\n

\t\t100.91
\n\t\tAverage (3 Darts)
\n\t\t100.79<\/p>\n

\t\t20
\n\t\t100+ Thrown
\n\t\t14<\/p>\n

\t\t5
\n\t\t140+ Thrown
\n\t\t7<\/p>\n

\t\t5
\n\t\t180 Thrown
\n\t\t7<\/p>\n

\t\t130
\n\t\tHighest Checkout
\n\t\t111<\/p>\n

\t\t3
\n\t\tCheckout 100+
\n\t\t1<\/p>\n

\t\t66.7
\n\t\tCheckout percentage
\n\t\t54.5<\/p>\n

\t\t8 \/ 12
\n\t\tCheckout
\n\t\t6 \/ 11<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Michael van Gerwen has begun the 2026 World Series of Darts campaign with success in the Bahrain Darts…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":237204,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[138036,140042,111,139,69,45436,213],"class_list":["post-237203","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-bahrain-darts-masters","tag-liveblog","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-pdc","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237203","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=237203"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237203\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/237204"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=237203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=237203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=237203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}