Grand Slam of Darts

The Grand Slam of Darts of 2018 was held from 10 to 18 November at the Aldersley Leisure Village in Wolverhampton. Gerwyn Price wins his first major title after a spectacular final against Gary Anderson.

During the group phase, Price already shows that he is in good shape. In a heavy group with Glen Durrant, Simon Whitlock and Andrew Gilding he manages to go to the next round as the leader of the group. During the last game he loses a 4-1 lead against Whitlock, causing the Australian to continue at the expense of Durrant.

It is a difficult tournament for Raymond van Barneveld. After a defeat against Krzysztof Ratajski and a win against Adam Smith-Neale, he loses the decision-making game against Michael Smith 5-0. As a result, the tournament is already over for the Dutchman after the group stage. Michael van Gerwen also has to take a defeat during the group stage. The Dutchman loses after a great fight with 5-4 from Jonny Clayton, but victories over Gary Robson and Joe Murnan make sure he continues to the last sixteen.

Wesley Harms starts the tournament with a 5-0 defeat against James Wade, but narrow victories against Mark Webster and Keegan Brown let him go on to the next round. Besides Harms, Michael Unterbuchner also places himself on behalf of the BDO for the last sixteen. He wins in a decisive match with 5-3 from Ian White.

During the first knockout round a number of big names immediately fell. For example, Peter Wright loses against Simon Whitlock, Mensur Suljovic defeats Rob Cross and James Wade surprisingly goes down against Michael Unterbuchner. Dimitri van den Bergh beats Stephen Bunting 10-6 and produces his first nine-darter ever during an official PDC tournament.
The remaining Dutchmen perform randomly: after a fantastic fight, Van Gerwen manages to win 10-8 against Michael Smith while Wesley Harms loses big against Gary Anderson (10-2). Gerwyn Price initially has a tough opponent in Josh Payne, but he manages to beat the young Englishman 10-5.

The quarterfinals offers the necessary spectacle: Gerwyn Price is during the whole game behind against Simon Whitlock, but after the Australian lacks five match darts, it is Price who still manages to win 16-15. Van Gerwen has a tough opponent in Jonny Clayton, but eventually manages to win with 16-12. Suljovic (against Van den Bergh) and Anderson (against Unterbuchner) convincingly win a spot in the semi-finals.

For the second time in his career, Gary Anderson manages to reach the final in Wolverhampton. Against Van Gerwen he almost manages the entire game and puts a 16-12 final score on the board. With that, 'Mighty Mike' loses the title he held for three years. Anderson's opponent in the final is Gerwyn Price. The Welshman comes in a 10-5 deficit against Mensur Suljovic, but cleverly returns to a 16-12 victory.

The final will be one that will be talked about for a long time. Anderson has the initiative during three quarters of the game, but is increasingly distracted by the exuberant cheer of his opponent. In the end, Price manages to get the Scot out of his game and wins the game with 16-13. With that, he wins a major tournament for the first time and climbs to the sixth place in the world ranking.