Michael van Gerwen beats Henry Coates 5-4 in Grand Slam of Darts opener

Van Gerwen wins a tight opener

Michael van Gerwen began his Grand Slam of Darts campaign with a 5-4 win over Henry Coates in Wolverhampton on 14 November. The Dutch player has had a poor year and has slipped outside the top ten of the world rankings, so the result was a relief for a three-time world champion. He has won fourteen of his last eighteen matches, and with the World Championship due in December he appears to be recovering. Van Gerwen broke the 20-year-old debutant in the first leg and led 2-0, but then his level dropped. Coates, who is ranked 96th in the world, improved steadily, finally converted one of his doubles and hit a 121 checkout and a 156 finish.

In the ninth and decisive leg Coates had two match darts but did not take them. Van Gerwen had to win the last two legs to take the match, and he hit the finish on his first attempt after Coates had missed.

A new format and a bigger field

The Grand Slam of Darts has a different setup this year. The field has grown from 32 to 48 players, split into sixteen groups of three, and only the group winners advance to the knockout stage. Finalists from television tournaments qualify automatically, as do winners of smaller European events, while the remaining places go to qualifier winners and to players from other tours such as the Development Tour for young players and the Women's Series. The winner takes 200,000 pounds, roughly 240,000 euro, and the losing finalist receives half of that. Van Gerwen meets Jeffrey de Graaf on Tuesday, 17 November, a player born in the Netherlands who has long represented Sweden, and a win would put him through to the knockout stage.

Dutch openers in Wolverhampton

Jermaine Wattimena also began well, beating Lisa Ashton 5-2 in his first group match. He faces Alan Soutar in his second group match on Sunday, 15 November. Wessel Nijman played the American Adam Sevada in the afternoon session and won 5-1 after dropping only one leg. Maik Kuivenhoven took the first leg on his own throw but then lost 5-1 to the Englishman Nathan Aspinall. The legs won by each player in these opening matches are shown below.

Van Gerwen5

Coates4

Wattimena5

Ashton2

Nijman5

Sevada1

Aspinall5

Kuivenhoven1

Van Gerwen

5 legs

Coates

4 legs

Wattimena

5 legs

Ashton

2 legs

Nijman

5 legs

Sevada

1 legs

Aspinall

5 legs

Kuivenhoven

1 legs

Data from the article text

Remaining matches and Kosters' qualification

Gian van Veen faces Carl Sneyd later on 14 November in the evening session. Kevin Doets and Niels Zonneveld play their first matches on Sunday, 15 November. Stef Kosters, a 25-year-old darter from Overijssel, won a qualifying tournament on 14 November and qualified for the World Championship for the first time. The tournament takes place in December in London, and Kosters' place there came as a surprise. Wattimena's match against Soutar on 15 November is his next test in the group stage.