Zonneveld: Van Gerwen is ready to "come back"

NIELS ZONNEVELD believes that fellow countryman Michael van Gerwen is ready to “come back”.

Triple Z won his first PDC title at the weekend at the Dutch Championship, beating Danny Noppert in the final.

Zonneveld, 28, was then invited onto Van Gerwen’s live stream channel to talk about his success in Maastricht.

Now he reckons that “incredible” MVG will defy the odds and roar back to his best.

He said: “We're living quite close to each other only ten minutes drive so he said ‘do you have plans tomorrow night and do you want to come over?’ so I said, ‘yeah why not?’

“I think he's a bit on the way back. Not like his results but you can see him average more and more, nearly 100 and also this weekend.

“I think his time will come again because he's putting more effort in than he did last year and he's such a good player I think it's just about time to come back.

“Of course it's difficult but I think if one man can do it then it's Michael.

“In that time it [Van Gerwen's domination] seems to be normal but now when you're on the tour and living what they already did then I start thinking, 'how did he do this? This is incredible'. So many titles.”

Zonneveld now plays Cameron Menzies in his European Championship opener in Dortmund on Thursday night.

But he believes he has improved his game with extra stamina, especially on the Euro Tour. He also found it tough to beat good pal Wessel Nijman.

He added: “It's very difficult, it's very hard. I think that match [vs Nijman] cost me the most energy.

“It's so difficult to play each other and especially for a home crowd because there were a lot of family and friends.

“I don't know why it clicked right now because I saw a graphic on social media that I play the Pro Tour now for eight years and every year it's going a little bit better.

“I think this is the year that I made the final step to the world's top.

“That's what I work for for so many years and putting so much effort in it and now it pays off so I'm really happy and proud of that.”

Images by Taylor Lanning.