Razor-sharp Michael van Gerwen completes perfect Dutch day at Grand Slam of Darts | Darts

Van Gerwen has already won the Grand Slam three times, but his last overall victory in Wolverhampton dates back to 2017. ,,It is a beautiful and difficult tournament, and I am really looking forward to it,” said the Dutch number 3 in the world in advance. Viaplay ,,The group matches are sometimes difficult, because you have to be level. I am more of the knockout matches: win or lose and go straight home. But I don’t hate this either. I usually continue. ” The opponent came from Northern Ireland and listened to the name Nathan Rafferty. Does he know him well? “No. I haven’t seen him play much, I know he does it occasionally. I want to set the tone right away and make as few mistakes as possible.”

So be in class. And that was Van Gerwen. After the first two legs went along with the darts, the Brabander soon struck. Mighty Mike showed a significantly higher level than Rafferty and consolidated the break. From a 3-1 lead, Van Gerwen was able to take the first victory of the tournament over cruise control. The first match dart on tops was immediately hit and so the match ended in 5-2.

Afterwards, Van Gerwen spoke of a comfortable victory, but also gave his opponent credits. ,,He comes out better than I expected, that can be said. But I had a good time on stage. I was playing well and I felt good. There were still some minor flaws, but in the end I won the match fairly easily. That gives satisfaction and confidence for tomorrow”, Van Gerwen concluded his analysis. Then Luke Woodhouse is the opponent, he won the other match in Group G with 5-4 against Ross Smith.

Earlier in the evening, Jermaine Wattimena had nicely dealt with Damon Heta, it became 5-2. The first two legs went to machine gun, after which his Australian opponent managed to move aside. Then Wattimena found the accelerator again. He won the next three legs and caused a surprise in Group E, as World Cup winner Heta is significantly higher on the Order of Merit (18 at 38). Wattimena’s group also includes American Leonard Gates and outsider Jonny Clayton from Wales.

In the afternoon session, Raymond van Barneveld also won his first group match at the Grand Slam of Darts. The 2012 winner missed handfuls of arrows on the doubles, but so did opponent Dave Chisnall. chizzy, the number 14 in the world ranking, initially managed to take advantage of a number of misses from The Hague and thus took a 2-0 lead. Then it was the Englishman who failed at the finish. so came Barney back to 2-2.

In the seventh place Van Barneveld placed a break which allowed the Dutchman to throw before the game. Four match darts went wrong, but after again a few misses by the Englishman Chisnall, it was Van Barneveld who took the victory via double ten: 5-3. The average of Barney was 90.71, versus Chisnall’s 90.40. The finish percentages were nothing to write home about: 20.8 percent (Van Barneveld) at twenty percent (Chisnall).

Van Duijvenbode against the German Martin Schindler a match dart, but still grabbed the victory: 5-4. Aubergenius, the number sixteen in the world, took off against Schindler, 32nd in the world ranking. The Dutchman grossed in high scores and took a 3-1 lead, but after that the triples fell less often. Schindler took three legs in a row and came to match point.

The German gave up a match dart in the eighth leg, but missed. Van Duijvenbode forced a decisive ninth leg via double nine. In it let Aubergenius see his class. He threw two maximum scores of 180 and threw out 83 to take the win.

Noppert also survived a match dart in his first match in the group stage. The Freeze, tenth in the world ranking, saw his Filipino opponent Perez miss out on double eighteen to the relief of the Dutchman. Noppert took the victory via double fourteen: 5-4.

Noppert, this year’s UK Open winner, had a much better average than Perez: 95.61 at 85.43. Also on the finish percentage of The Freeze was little to criticize: 83.3 percent against 36.4 percent of the Philippines.

Group A
Dave Chisnall – Raymond van Barneveld 3-5
Gerwyn Price – Ted Evetts 5-1

Group B
Simon Whitlock – Mensur Suljovic 5-2
Danny Noppert – Christian Perez 5-4

Group C
Joe Cullen – Ritchie Edhouse 5-1
Michael Smith – Lisa Ashton 5-3

Group D
Dirk van Duijvenbode – Martin Schindler 5-4
Rob Cross – Adam Gawlas 5-2

Group E
Nathan Aspinall – Alan Soutar 4-5
Peter Wright – Fallon Sherrock 5-1

Group F
Damon Heta – Jermaine Wattimena (start around 9pm) 2-5
Jonny Clayton – Leonard Gates (starts around 11:30 PM)

Group G
Ross Smith – Luke Woodhouse 4-5
Michael van Gerwen – Nathan Rafferty 5-2

Group H
Ryan Searle – Josh Rock 5-4
Luke Humphries – Scott Williams 5-2

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