Michael van Gerwen heeft bekend gemaakt dat hij de ambitie heeft om de komende tien jaar nog aan de top van de dartssport te blijven staan.
Van Gerwen en zijn vrouw Daphne vierden de geboorte van hun tweede kind afgelopen april en de nummer één van de wereld heeft de afgelopen maanden genoten van de extra tijd met zijn familie.
De 31-jarige Brabander, die niet speelde in de PDC Home Tour, is klaar voor de toernooien die tijdens de PDC Summer Series weer zullen starten.
In het bovenstaande interview met The Darts Show podcast zei Van Gerwen: "Of course I'm going to come back with a bang,
What I noticed is that I really missed playing on the highest level and that was a good sign to myself.
I'm still hungry to win more titles. I still want to be the best for another five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten years.
Of course it has been a really difficult time with the coronavirus, but for myself as a father to two children now, it's probably the most time I've ever spent with them and I've changed a lot of nappies.
I chose to enjoy that time and it was fantastic, but now I'm at the point where I want to be back at the tour and I want to play and I want to compete, simple. The total process has to be right.
Practice has been going well, really good to be fair. Lots of people competed in the Home Tour so you know if they're playing well or not so well, but nobody knows anything about me, but I can tell you now, nothing has changed, trust me."
Michael van Gerwen houdt de UK Open beker omhoog na zijn overwinning in de finale van 2020.
Op Nieuwjaarsdag verloor Van Gerwen zijn wereldtitel aan Peter Wright en dat voerde voor de Nederlander de druk flink op.
Van Gerwen won drie maanden geen TV-toernooi, maar wist in maart toch de UK Open titel binnen te slepen met een gemiddelde van 104 over het hele toernooi.
Van Gerwen: "There was a lot of talk about me at the start of 2020,
I changed darts manufacturer and there were a lot of question marks behind my name until I played the UK Open.
I played a phenomenal tournament over there, smashed everyone up and that gave me a lot of confidence. You need to believe in your ability, to know where your strengths and weaknesses are. I don't have many weaknesses I know that.
I always say you need to invest in something and you need to give yourself some time and that is exactly what I did and it worked out quite well."
De Nederlander verloor in 2019 in de tweede ronde van de World Matchplay van debutant Glen Durrant.
Na de PDC Summer Series in juli zal alle aandacht gericht zijn op de Betfred World Matchplay die plaats zal vinden op de originele data,18 t/m 26 juli.
Nadat Van Gerwen zijn tweede World Matchplay titel won in 2016 is het op dit toernooi niet verder meer gekomen dan de kwartfinales. Hij zal dit volgende maand proberen te veranderen.
Van Gerwen: "I didn't perform well in the last two years at the World Matchplay. I have got nothing to defend at all so I think I might be hungry for that title,
Obviously, at the moment we don't know if there will be a crowd there or if it will be in Blackpool but I can't wait to perform in front of the fans again whenever that may be."
© Foto's: Professional Darts Corporation (PDC)