Michael van Gerwen has revealed he lost £200,000 in prize money due to Covid after dropping down the rankings.
Van Gerwen endured a dismal 2021, not helped by his enforced withdrawal from the PDC World Darts Championship after testing positive for Covid. MVG pulled out of the tournament at the third round stage, meaning he only pocketed £25,000 in prize money.
The Dutchman had reached the quarter-final stage or better in all bar one of the previous eight Ally Pally championships. So he might reasonably have expected a deep run in the tournament and the prize money that would have come with it.
A quarter-final appearance would have seen Van Gerwen take home £50,000, with £100,000 guaranteed in the semi-finals and a cool £200,000 secured by the runner-up. Peter Wright, who won the tournament, took home the £500,000 top prize.
But MVG had to make do with £25,000 – an amount which affected his PDC ranking. At one point earlier this year, the 32-year-old fell to a scarcely believable 5th in the order of merit.
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He is now back up to third after victory over Martin Schindler in a Players' Championship event on Sunday. Afterwards, MVG revealed how Covid had affected his ranking – and his finances.
Van Gerwen said: "Last year was, of course, a disaster for me. If you look towards the ranking system, I lost £200,000 in my world ranking because of Covid, which you can't do anything against.
"There was £250,000 probably in Euro Tours, so that's £450,000 off the ranking that I couldn't do anything against. So if you look towards that perspective, there's not really a lot you can do – but I always want to aim for more, and I keep believing in myself.
The three-time world champion has been in good form in 2022 but has some way to go to regain his position at the top of the order of merit. Van Gerwen is £605,250 behind current no.1 Gerwyn Price, who picked up £500,000 for his 2021 world title win.
Nevertheless, the Green Machine is feeling good after his latest victory and believes winning is the perfect tonic after his poor 2021.
"I think I did the right things at the right moments and that makes you win finals like this," said Van Gerwen. "I didn't play phenomenal but I think I did okay today," he said afterwards.
"You want to keep pushing and keep performing well and that takes a lot of energy out of you, but I'm not here to play a few rounds, I want to win these tournaments. It gives you more confidence and more energy.
"The only medicine for getting back on track is winning games and winning tournaments. That's the only thing you can do. I was hanging in there and I never gave up, and I think today my focus was there and absolute will to win was there, and that's the only thing that matters."
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