Peter Wright: Scot targets Van Gerwen's number one ranking after first world title
- Published
PDC darts champion Peter Wright: 'Crazy hair gives me confidence'
New PDC world champion Peter Wright says his next target is to eclipse Michael van Gerwen as world number one and add more global titles to his haul.
Scotsman Wright beat defending champion and three-time winner Van Gerwen on New Year's Day to win his first world crown.
At 49 the Livingston-born player is the oldest first-time champion having lost 10 of his previous 11 major finals.
"I want to get to number one in the world," Wright told BBC Scotland.
"It's another target in my mind to do next. Plus win another four World Championships before I retire. The only way you're going to get that experience is to play against these guys week in week out."
Wright went into the final against Van Gerwen having lost 59 of 78 matches against the Dutchman, including the 2014 World Championship final, and was on a run of seven successive major final losses to darts' dominant force of the past five years.
But clinical finishing earned the Scot a 7-3 win at Alexandra Palace in London, for which he gives credit to some new darts bought just a week before the tournament began.
"I practised with them and felt really, really confident with them - like I could beat anyone, and I went and did it," he said.
Wright is only the second Scot to win the PDC crown since the separation of darts' governing body into two separate entities, the BDO and PDC.
He joins Gary Anderson, who won back-to-back titles in 2015 and 2016, and believes he is ready to cope with the demands of being world champion.
"I asked myself that question on New Year's Eve, when I couldn't sleep," he said.
"I said to myself, 'Right, are you ready to be world champion? Doing all the press and all the things required as a world champion?' And I said to myself, 'Yeah, let's do it.'
"In 2014 I wasn't ready to be world champion, but this time I believed from the beginning of the tournament, I fancied my chances of winning it."