Vincent van der Voort has voiced his bewilderment over Michael van Gerwen's recurring inconsistency, questioning how the Dutchman can be so sharp one week and then fail to replicate that form the next. Speaking on the Darts Draait Door podcast, Van der Voort pointed to Van Gerwen's recent performances, including a strong showing at the 2026 World Cup of Darts where he and Gian van Veen reached the final for the Netherlands, followed by a subdued display at the Slovak Darts Open.
Van Gerwen started the month excellently with a title at the Nordic Darts Masters and a runner-up spot at the World Cup, but those tournaments did not earn him money for the PDC Order of Merit. Van der Voort noted that ranking events are particularly important for Van Gerwen right now, given that he has a lot of prize money to defend and wants to avoid a big drop in the world rankings. This makes it all the more puzzling that Van Gerwen has been skipping floor events this year.
Van Gerwen was absent from Players Championships last week due to an infection, which Van der Voort acknowledged was unavoidable. “There wasn’t much he could do about this. He had an infection and that all had to be taken care of, so he really couldn’t help it,” Van der Voort explained. However, after recovering, Van Gerwen appeared at the Slovak Darts Open but failed to impress, scraping past Krzysztof Ratajski with difficulty before losing in the last 16 to Andrew Gilding.
“With Van Gerwen you again think: ‘How is it that you were so sharp last week, getting into your rhythm so quickly each time and playing with a certain drive, and now it’s not happening?’” Van der Voort wondered. He highlighted the mindset and attitude that Van Gerwen displayed at the World Cup, calling it “the old Van Gerwen,” but noted that this was absent on the Euro Tour. While the Dutch national team’s World Cup match on Saturday evening may have been a factor, Van der Voort insisted it cannot be an excuse: “You still need to be professional enough. You just have to keep doing your job.”
