Peter Wright was thrashed 3-0 by debutant Arno Merk in the second round of the PDC World Championship on Tuesday, with the two-time world champion producing his worst-ever performance
Michael van Gerwen has suggested that Peter Wright should consider retiring from darts after ‘Snakebite’ suffered a dismal exit from the PDC World Championship on Tuesday.
Wright was beaten 3-0 defeat by debutant and world No.163 Arno Merk in the second round at Alexandra Palace, delivering his worst-ever performance at the tournament. With an average score of just 79.20, only two 180s, and a dismal 13.33 per cent double finish rate, ‘Snakebite’ was far from his best.
Van Gerwen, who advanced to the third round after defeating William O’Connor, didn’t hold back in his assessment of Wright’s performance. The world No.30 has seen a significant drop in the PDC Order of Merit and hasn’t won a single title in 2025.
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‘Mighty Mike’ said: “I’m not really surprised by his performance because he’s been playing c*** lately. I think it’s time for him to retire anyway.”
Van Gerwen’s remarks come a week after Wright suggested that Dutchman’s eyesight might be deteriorating.
After his first-round victory over Noa-Lynn van Leuven, Wright said: “I think their [younger players’] eyesight is better than ours. I think that’s about it.
“Obviously Gary [Anderson] is on the glasses or contacts. I don’t know if Michael’s wearing contacts at the moment, but I think MVG’s vision is probably going – but he won’t admit it at the moment.”
When informed of Wright’s comments, Van Gerwen responded: “There’s nothing wrong with my eyes. Don’t worry. I keep getting compliments.”
Van Gerwen and Wright were set for a thrilling third-round clash post-Christmas, but now the Dutch darts player is poised to face Merk instead.
Despite receiving criticism from Van Gerwen, Anderson defended Wright following his victory over Connor Scutt, urging that ‘Snakebite’ should be given “a bit of time”.
“We can’t play well all the time. People think we’re robots and you’ve just got to play well all the time or a bad couple of games it’s ‘he’s finished, he’s retiring’,” he stated.
“Just give folk a break, you know. We can’t keep doing that day in and day out. We’ve seen Michael van Gerwen do that for probably the last decade. He has a blimp and it’s ‘that’s it, he’s finished’.”
Meanwhile, ex-World Championship semi-finalist Wayne Mardle believes that Wright should not make a hasty decision about his future.
“It was an awful watch – watching a champion, a legend of our sport, someone who has helped the sport grow, I didn’t enjoy it one bit,” Mardle confessed to Sky Sports.
“I don’t know what questions Peter will ask himself – whether it’s like ‘it’s fine, I will carry on. I love the game’. And I hope that happens. He’s always said ‘I don’t want to retire, I love it’ so I don’t want him to have a knee-jerk reaction because it’s happened at the World Championship.
“If you play like that elsewhere, it’s OK. You don’t really think about it but when you do it at the World Championship, and I know this because I’ve done it, you end up questioning whether you are good enough to compete ever again.
“And it’s about competing, about winning. He’s a winner. I hope he’s OK because you will think about that. That sleepless night stuff, I hope he doesn’t make one of these knee-jerk reactions like we have seen from other players.
“He’s been a classy ambassador for darts – brings that fun but also brings that amazing ability and a touch of class.”
