Michael van Gerwen once had beer thrown in his face by a fan before a World Darts Championship match.
The Dutchman clinched his third PDC world title at the Alexandra Palace showpiece in January 2019, but only after overcoming his fair share of adversity in his opening match.
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Van Gerwen got his campaign underway with a 3-1 win over Alan Tabern in the second round.
But it was events before the match which overshadowed the spectacle, when a fan took matters into their own hands early on.
As he prepared to make his walk-on at Ally Pally, ‘Mighty Mike’ was showered in two pints of beer, which were thrown over him by a rowdy member of the crowd.
The darts star was left totally drenched, and was immediately escorted backstage to change his iconic green shirt and clean the drink off his face.
Van Gerwen was visibly upset as he made his way back inside, and still looked emotional when he eventually returned to the oche.
But he managed to shrug this off during the match, averaging an impressive 102.59 to seal the win and his spot in the next round.
And despite the earlier events, Van Gerwen still went back to the crowd to take selfies and sign autographs after his victory, with some supporters appearing to apologise for what had happened to him.
Speaking later however, the three-time world champion admitted he had been affected by the unsavoury incident.
He told Sky Sports: “It’s never happened to me before. I had two pints of drink thrown at my neck, along with the security guard.
“I’ve never had this happen to me in my life, so I didn’t know how to react. I was so angry, but what can you do?
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“You can’t do anything. The only thing I could do was change my shirt, wash my hands, drink was all over my arm.
“When you throw the darts, it has a different feeling on the hand.
“It was difficult. I was a little bit emotional, because I thought ‘what happens here’.”
On his performance, Van Gerwen added: “But I am glad I won this game. I didn’t play too well, nor too bad. I think it was okay.”
And the then-world number one revealed he was pleased with how he handled the drama, and suggested other players could learn from his example.
He went on: “I think every other player can learn from me, because I never find an excuse, I never blame anything else.
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“The only thing you can do in darts is blame yourself. I still had to throw the darts at the board and I’m really glad I did.
“Alan Tabern had a phenomenal game, played quite well, he put me under pressure. But I’m glad I played the game I wanted to.”
And while Van Gerwen coped admirably in difficult circumstances, he would have been pleased to know that the culprit was quickly identified and thrown out, as well as receiving a lifetime ban from darts.
A PDC spokesman said: “The fan who threw the beer was removed from the premises. The PDC doesn’t condone that sort of behaviour.”
Thankfully for the Van Gerwen, the rest of his World Championship campaign was memorable for the right reasons, as he went on to record wins over Max Hopp, Adrian Lewis, Ryan Joyce and Gary Anderson to book his spot in the final.
He then stormed to a convincing 7-3 victory over Michael Smith to clinch a third PDC world title, putting him behind only Phil Taylor on the leaderboard of players with the most tournament wins.
