You’ve gotten gained the Grand Slam of Darts, you might be heading to Alexandra Palace for the Worlds – does all people suppose it’s best to win all of it? It’s truthful to say that lots of people do.
After all, on the fundamental rule of sporting kind, in the event you win the penultimate main earlier than heading to the World Darts Championship, you’ll be firing and feeling assured.
You’ve gotten simply proven you’ll be able to maintain your nerve beneath stress, you understand how to dig deep and hearth within the successful darts.
Now, you simply need to do all of it once more. Easy, proper? It relies upon what, if any, impact one victory has on the prospect of the opposite.
Is it simply {that a} huge win such because the Grand Slam creates a change within the variable that could be a participant’s confidence degree and there’s a correlation between the 2 huge wins? Or would a participant merely not have gained the Worlds with out successful the Grand Slam in an instance of trigger and impact?
The reply to this most likely varies participant to participant. Luke Humphries and Michael Smith would say that successful majors within the lead-up to their maiden Worlds wins had been very important. Others would simply say exhibiting kind in a single results in kind within the different only a few weeks later.
Then there may be the state of affairs by which there appears to be no hyperlink between the 2 in any respect.
What is obvious although, is that in the event you choose up a Grand Slam victory, folks consider that your probabilities of leaving Ally Pally in January on prime of the darting world heighten.
Phil Taylor (2007, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2014)
Taylor is essentially the most embellished participant in darting historical past and the Grand Slam is a stage he cherished, successful six occasions in seven years.
On two of these events, when he gained the Grand Slam, he went on to win the massive prize too in 2009 and 2010.
The 5 occasions he did not go on to win the Worlds, victory got here for John Half in 2008, Adrian Lewis in 2011 and 2012, Michael van Gerwen in 2014, and Gary Anderson in 2015, Taylor ending as runner-up towards the Scotsman.
Scott Waites (2010)
Waites gained two BDO World titles from 2013 and 2016 however by no means gained a World Championship as a PDC participant. His 16-12 Grand Slam victory in 2010 towards James Wade had no impact on his Worlds-winning probabilities.
Raymond van Barneveld (2012)
Van Barneveld has one PDC World Darts title to his title which got here in 2007 in a 7-6 victory over Taylor however this was 5 years previous to his maiden Grand Slam win.
That got here in 2012 in a 16-14 thriller towards the ‘Inexperienced Machine’.
Michael van Gerwen (2015, 2016, 2017)
Van Gerwen has gained the World Darts Championship 3 times in his illustrious profession and on a kind of events, he had gained the Grand Slam earlier than selecting up victory within the greatest present of all of them.
This was when he claimed a 16-8 win over Wade within the 2016 Grand Slam after which went onto defeat Anderson 7-3 on the Worlds in January 2017.
His different World Championship wins got here in 2014, a yr previous to his first Grand Slam victory, and 2019, when he didn’t function within the ultimate of the Grand Slam in November 2018.
Gerwyn Value (2018, 2019, 2021)
Value is a participant that loves the Grand Slam, selecting up victory on three totally different occasions of asking, making him the joint-second most embellished participant within the event’s historical past with Van Gerwen.
Nevertheless, his Grand Slam wins didn’t line up together with his Worlds win, which got here in 2021. He didn’t choose up victory within the Grand Slam 2020, which was gained by Jose de Sousa.
Jose de Sousa (2020)
De Sousa has not progressed previous the final 16 on the Worlds and so when he gained the Grand Slam in 2020, he didn’t capitalise and switch his momentum into glory at Ally Pally.
Certainly, he went out within the third spherical after coming into the event because the 14th seed.
Michael Smith (2022)
Over the previous couple of years, the pattern actually begins to return into drive that the Grand Slam winner goes on a run on the Worlds.
Smith picked up an enormous main win on the Grand Slam of Darts in 2022, defeating Nathan Aspinall in a dominant 16-5 win.
That was a milestone second in his profession and after losses within the ultimate of the World Darts Championship in 2019 and 2022, he lastly gained in 2023 in a 7-4 traditional towards Van Gerwen, hitting an unimaginable nine-darter on the best way.
Luke Humphries (2023)
In an identical story to Smith, Humphries picked up what was touted as a vital Grand Slam win on the best way to being topped world champion.
In his second main within the area of 42 days, Humphries defeated Rob Cross 16-8 to maintain his run going.
This then led him onto the Worlds by which he got here out on prime 7-4 towards Luke Litter, cementing himself as the game’s finest.
Now, it’s time to see if whoever is topped this yr’s Grand Slam winner follows the trail of Smith and Humphries.
How will you watch?
The Grand Slam of Darts is stay daily on Sky Sports activities from Novmber 9-17 as Luke Humphries seems to defend his title, with Beau Greaves and Noa-Lynn van Leuven additionally participating.
Consideration then turns to the flip of the yr and the 2025 PDC World Darts Championship, starting on December 15, because the darts calendar continues to supply pleasure all year long – and you’ll take pleasure in the perfect right here stay on Sky Sports activities.
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