AS Friday arrives, the dust from the first two rounds of the World Darts Grand Prix settles and heads are immediately tuned to tonight’s quarter-final ties.
The first tie is the surprise Quarter-Finalist Mike De Decker, against two time Grand Prix champion James Wade.
De Decker makes just his second appearance at the Grand Prix this year, and has dumped out Damon Heta and two time World Champion Gary Anderson. 2024 has been a standout year for De Decker, taking his first senior title in the Players Championship.
James Wade has beaten two 2024 Premier League players, in Peter Wright and a whitewash victory over Gerwyn Price. Wade has twice won this competition, and achieved only the second ever nine dart finish at the World Grand Prix.
De Decker and Wade have met just once this year, a 6-3 win for Wade in a 1st Round European Tour event.
Tie 2 is an all English affair with Ryan Joyce playing in just his second ever major ranking quarter-final. Joyce will play Rob Cross, who is making his deepest run in this tournament, at the eight attempt.
Joyce has defied the odds in this tournament, whitewashing Josh Rock in Round 1 and in Round 2 former UK Open and Matchplay winner Nathan Aspinall.
Cross upset the bookies, by beating pre-tournament favourite Luke Littler in Round 1, and German number one Martin Schindler to meet Joyce.
The two Englishmen have just one meeting at a major tournament, with a 10-4 Cross victory in the Quarter-Final of the 2021 Grand Slam of Darts.
QF 3 sees World Number One and defending Grand Prix champion Luke Humphries play Jonny Clayton in a replay of the Matchplay 2023 Semi-Final.
Humphries would break his major-duck in the Grand Prix last year, and has so far dumped out Stephen Bunting and Ricardo Pietreczko. Humphries would return from a set and a leg down, to turn the game around against Bunting, and survived match darts.
Clayton has so far smitten two English players out of the Grand Prix. Late qualifier Richie Edhouse and Ross Smith have been put to the Ferret’s sword.
The final Quarter-Final of the evening is Joe Cullen against Dimitri Van den Bergh, the first meeting of the two for over two years.
Cullen has overcame World Number 12 Chris Dobey in Round 1. He would then come from a set down twice to beat Northern Irish Daryl Gurney 3-2. Should Cullen win, he would match his best Grand Prix performance.
Van den Bergh has never made it past the quarter-finals of the Grand Prix in five attempts, and would surpass his recent World Matchplay performance. The tournament 3rd favourite, fell behind in both games against Luke Woodhouse and Dave Chisnall, but ran out victorious. The Belgian would hit eight perfect darts against Chisnall, with back -to-back 180’s and finished 74 to take the third set.
All of the ties will be played tonight (Friday 11th), with the semi-finals to be played tomorrow. The bookie’s favourite is currently Luke Humphries. Rob Cross is a surprise second favourite despite struggling with the Double In, Double Out format of the Grand Prix.
