Van Gerwen, the number one seed and defending champion, wasn’t at his imperious best but did enough to get past his tricky opponent.
Price had Van Gerwyn on the rack in the first set.
But the Dutchman came roaring back and clinched it in style.
After the first couple of sets, MVG was down on his average compared to other matches – 102, while Price was at 92 even though his average belied his efforts.
Price rallied and after coming back from two sets down, he looked to have the upper hand.
At times, Van Gerwyn appeared to be scrambled as he gave his opponent chances.
But Van Gerwen clinched an important break and surged ahead in the sixth set.
Although Van Gerwen missed three darts at double seven, he came back to oche to checkout with 14 and seal his quarter-final spot against Raymond van Barneveld, who knocked out compatriot Vincent van der Voort.
Van Gerwen admitted he wasn’t at his best against Price.
He said: “To be fair I was not playing that well, but he never gives up.
“I will have to play better against Raymond.”
Gerwyn claimed Van Gerwen deserved to win as he said: “I got it back to 2-2 and I missed darts to go 3-2 up and that was the turning point.
“I believed that this was my final and he deserved to win.”