The 14th edition of the Boyle Sports Grand Slam of Darts was kicked off at the Ricoh Arena in Coventry on Monday. For the first time ever, the event does not take place in Wolverhampton due to the current situation, but without a live audience in Coventry. Five different champions have won the Grand Slam title so far: Record world champion Phil “The Power” Taylor took home the trophy six times, Michael van Gerwen four times, Raymond van Barneveld and Scott Waites once each. This year, the “Iceman” Gerwyn Price is the defending champion, having won the last two Grand Slams. In eight groups of four players each, a group phase will be played until Thursday. The two top-placed players in each group then qualify for the round of the last sixteen<\/p>\n
Already in the afternoon session, TV viewers were present at a historic moment when Dimitri Van den Bergh set a new record average for the Grand Slam of Darts. In his 5:1 victory over Ricky Evans, the current World Matchplay Champion scored 114.85 points on average and was thus exactly 0.2 points better than Phil Taylor who had set the previous record six years ago.
\n“I am totally surprised, I really didn’t expect that. I didn’t feel too good when I was warming up, but of course I am very happy about the record”, said the young Belgian after the match.<\/p>\n
Gabriel Clemens was also happy, as he started the Grand Slam with a commanding 5:2 victory over Joe Cullen. With 99.91 points, the Saarlander missed an average of over 100 points by a hair’s breadth and was particularly convincing when it came to his finishing. The double percentage of over 60% made things very difficult for Cullen, who himself played a very decent game.<\/p>\n
Defending champion Gerwyn Price got away with murder in his opening game! The Iceman had a hard time against the BDO Women’s World Champion Mikuru Suzuki from Japan and never found his rhythm. This was also due to the fact that the 38-year-old kept hurting him in important moments, including finishes of 135 and 116. In the decisive leg, “Miracle” then wasted four match darts for the sensation before Price was able secure a 5:4 victory.
\n“I played terrible, it’s as simple as that. She took the chances I gave her very well,” said Gerwyn Price self-critically.<\/p>\n
Two further games of the evening session were decided in the final leg. Krzysztof Ratajski and Jos\u00e9 de Sousa played a thrilling match and the last leg, in which three 180s were hit, was no exception. De Sousa’s two maxima were then enough to defeat the Pole.<\/p>\n
Dirk van Duijvenbode provided a little surprise, when he defeated world champion Peter Wright by 5:4. With an average of 90, Wright remained far below his ability, but van Duijvenbode’s victory illustrates his positive development in recent months, during which he was able to reach the final of the World Grand Prix.<\/p>\n
The number 1 of the world, Michael van Gerwen, was able to set down a marker in his first match. In 7 minutes and 53 seconds he demolished Adam Hunt by 5:0 with an average of over 105 points. After the difficulties of the last months, the three-time world champion seems to be slowly but surely getting back on track.
\n“I put a lot of energy into this match today. It would be too early to say that I’m back to my old self, but such matches do of course do good,” MVG said in an interview with Sky Sports.<\/p>\n
The action will continue tomorrow live on Sky Sports, DAZN, Sport1 and RTL 7.<\/p>\n
Boyle Sports Grand Slam of Darts 2020, Monday November 16, 16x 1st round Evening session<\/strong> On Tuesday, the two winners and the two losers of the first day of action will face eachother (the order of play may still vary):<\/p>\n Afternoon session, 8x 1st round<\/strong> Evening session, 8x 1st round<\/strong> The 14th edition of the Boyle Sports Grand Slam of Darts was kicked off at the Ricoh Arena in Coventry…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":2343,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[124],"tags":[],"lang":"en","translations":{"de":2345,"en":2342},"pll_sync_post":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pdc.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2342"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pdc.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pdc.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pdc.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pdc.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2342"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pdc.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2342\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2344,"href":"https:\/\/pdc.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2342\/revisions\/2344"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pdc.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pdc.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pdc.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pdc.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nAfternoon session<\/strong>
\nRob Cross 5:1 Justin Pipe (D)
\nDave Chisnall 5:4 Luke Humphries (D)
\nJames Wade 5:2 Damon Heta (F)
\nSimon Whitlock 5:3 Ryan Searle (B)
\nJermaine Wattimena 5:1 Glen Durrant (F)
\nNathan Aspinall 5:0 Wayne Warren (H)
\nDimitri Van den Bergh 5:1 Ricky Evans (H)
\nGary Anderson 5:3 Adam Gawlas (B)<\/p>\n
\nJonny Clayton 5:4 Ryan Joyce (G)
\nGabriel Clemens 5:2 Joe Cullen (A)
\nJos\u00e9 de Sousa 5:4 Krzysztof Ratajski (C)
\nMichael Smith 5:1 Lisa Ashton (C)
\nMichael van Gerwen 5:0 Adam Hunt (A)
\nGerwyn Price 5:4 Mikuru Suzuki (G)
\nPeter Wright 4:5 Dirk van Duijvenbode (E)
\nDevon Petersen 5:2 Ian White (E)<\/p>\n
\nRicky Evans \u2013 Wayne Warren (H)
\nLuke Humphries \u2013 Justin Pipe (D)
\nRyan Searle \u2013 Adam Gawlas (B)
\nGlen Durrant \u2013 Damon Heta (F)
\nGary Anderson \u2013 Simon Whitlock (B)
\nJames Wade \u2013 Jermaine Wattimena (F)
\nRob Cross \u2013 Dave Chisnall (D)
\nNathan Aspinall \u2013 Dimitri Van den Bergh (H)<\/p>\n
\nJonny Clayton \u2013 Gerwyn Price (G)
\nRyan Joyce \u2013 Mikuru Suzuki (G)
\nGabriel Clemens \u2013 Michael van Gerwen (A)
\nJoe Cullen \u2013 Adam Hunt (A)
\nJos\u00e9 de Sousa \u2013 Michael Smith (C)
\nKrzysztof Ratajski \u2013 Lisa Ashton (C)
\nDirk van Duijvenbode \u2013 Devon Petersen (E)
\nPeter Wright \u2013 Ian White (E)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"