Gerwyn Price (Picture: Lawrence Lustig/PDC)

Grand Slam of Darts results: Gerwyn Price beats Simon Whitlock in thriller and will play Mensur Suljovic in semis

By Chris Hammer

Darts

Sat November 17, 2018 · 6y ago

Gerwyn Price won an incredibly heated and dramatic clash with Simon Whitlock to reach the Grand Slam of Darts semi-finals in Wolverhampton.

Neither player could keep their cool emotionally on a fiery Friday night at the Aldersley Leisure Village, but their pumped up celebrations throughout an absorbing contest kept the crowd on their feet until the Iceman's winning dart.

Price was never ahead until he won the deciding 31st leg as Whitlock was made to pay for missing five missed match darts after moving into a 15-13 lead.

The Wizard, who beat the Welshman 5-4 with the help of two 170 checkouts in an epic group stage match on Monday, failed to hit tops twice the gap closed to just one and then spurned two more at double 16, allowing Price to take the match the distance.

Whitlock reached a finish first in a nervy decider but despite leaving 73 from 170, he was afforded one last opportunity when Price missed the bullseye for a showstopping 164. However, his attempt at double 18 fell the wrong side of the wire and it proved costly as his opponent held his nerve with his sole match dart.

It was clear we were in for a classic as early as the opening leg when Whitlock, the recent European Championship runner-up, landed a 146 checkout that set the tone for him early on as he romped into a 7-3 advantage.

The 2017 UK Open runner-up showed plenty of fighting spirit to claw his way back into contention over the next 10 legs which saw him level up at 10-10.

Then it was Whitlock's turn to find a mini turbo mode, with a flurry of 180s and an 11-darter pushing him 12-10 up while he repeated the trick to lead 14-13 before taking the next for a commanding lead at such a pivotal time. But, he just couldn't finish the job.

Price averaged 96, hit six 180s and converted 16 of his 41 attempts at doubles while the Aussie averaged were 95, made 12 maximums and hit 15 of his 39 efforts at doubles.

Price advances to Sunday afternoon's semi-finals, where he'll meet Mensur Suljovic, who produced a classy display to defeat Dimitri van den Bergh 16-9.

The Austrian hadn't been firing on all cylinders in recent tournaments and headed into this clash at Wolverhampton's Aldersley Leisure Village having lost two of his group games prior to his second-round triumph over Rob Cross.

But this was much more like the Suljovic who reached this summer's epic World Matchplay final against Gary Anderson, as he averaged 99, hit seven 180s and nailed 16 of his 30 attempts at doubles, including a successful shot at the bullseye which completed a stunning 167 checkout in the second leg.

That said it took until he was leading 4-2 for him to end a run of 32 legs without a maximum, and just like busses it didn't take long for his other six to follow.

Van den Bergh, who raised the roof with his first nine-dart finish in Wednesday's second-round clash with Stephen Bunting, struggled early on and never really recovered as Suljovic opened up commanding commanding leads of 8-3 and 12-6.

The World Youth champion, who defends that title against Martin Schindler later this month, hadn't been involved in as long as format match on TV since reaching the World Championship quarter-final last year, and that lack of experience showed although he did get back as close as 13-9 before the Austrian pulled away again.

Van den Bergh averaged 94 and hit four maximums while he wasn't too shabby on his doubles either, hitting nine out of 21, including one on double 12 to finish off a 144 checkout that put his first leg on the board at 3-1.

Apart from the World Matchplay, this is the sixth time Suljovic has reached a major PDC televised semi-final having previously done so at the World Grand Prix three times (2015, 2017, 2018), the Masters (2018) and Players Championship Finals (2015).

The remaining two quarter-finals take place on Saturday night with Gary Anderson taking on the BDO's Michael Unterbuchner before Michael van Gerwen faces Jonny Clayton.