Doubles are very much the order of the day in the darts world this week as 32 of the best players in the world head to Leicester for the World Grand Prix, the set play tournament where you have to start legs on a double as well as finish on one.
Luke Humphries began a magical run of big tournament wins by taking this down a year ago and the world number one will be looking to make a successful defence of the crown, something which hasn’t been done since 2019.
Recent Winners
2023 – Luke Humphries
2022 – Michael van Gerwen
2021 – Jonny Clayton
2020 – Gerwyn Price
2019 – Michael van Gerwen
2018 – Michael van Gerwen
2017 – Daryl Gurney
2016 – Michael van Gerwen
2015 – Robert Thornton
2014 – Michael van Gerwen
The Format
This is the one tournament of the year where the format is completely different. In every leg players have to hit a double to start scoring and then hit another to finish the leg. We are at set play in this tournament as well. The first round is a bunfight over the best-of-three sets while the second round and quarter finals move up to the best-of-five. It is the best-of-seven for the semi-finals and then the champion will be decided over the best-of-nine sets in the final on the Sunday. Each set throughout the tournament is the best-of-five legs and the deciding set will be settled in the fifth leg rather than a tiebreak.
Top Half
Luke Humphries is not just the defending champion, world champion and world number one but he is also the top seed in the draw and right at the top of the bracket as a result. One of the perks of this tournament is there are only eight seeds so you get an incredibly competitive draw. The other three seeds in the top half of the draw are the former champion Jonny Clayton and two other TV event winners in Rob Cross and Nathan Aspinall.
There are plenty of qualifiers for this tournament and the chief one in the top half is the world finalist Luke Littler who makes his debut in the event this week. Raymond van Barneveld twice former finalist of this event and he is in this half of the draw. The Masters winner Stephen Bunting is in here too as is the recent European Tour event champion Martin Schindler and the man he beat in the final in Ryan Searle. Josh Rock and Gian van Veen will go into battle for the younger brigade and Ross Smith and Ryan Joyce are a pair of more experienced players in the draw.
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Bottom Half
The number two seed this week is Michael Smith and the former world champion will be looking to get his hands on this title for the first time from the bottom half of the draw. He has a dog of a first round draw which could open the section up for the other three seeds. The six-time winner Michael van Gerwen would appear to rate as the main danger but Gerwyn Price is a former champion of this tournament while Dave Chisnall has twice made the final and neither should be written off completely.
There are plenty of big names who aren’t seeded in this half of the draw. The 2017 winner Daryl Gurney and James Wade are the only former champions among them but Peter Wright has won everything in the game apart from this tournament it seems. Gary Anderson will go for a first World Grand Prix title from this half but he has Michael Smith in a marquee first round clash. Chris Dobey, Joe Cullen, Dimitri Van den Bergh and Danny Noppert are all previous tournament winners in this half while Damon Heta and Cameron Menzies will hope this is the week their floor form translates onto the stage.
Betting
Dave Chisnall hasn’t won a match in this tournament since 2021 but his overall record in it is sensational having twice made the final, twice made the semi-final and a couple of quarter finals on top of that as well and I think he is well worth backing this week. In the last month alone he has won a European Tour event, won a Players Championship tournament, lost out in the final of another Players Championship competition to Michael van Gerwen and last week made another two quarter finals on the floor so he arrives in Leicester in brilliant form. Although Chizzy hasn’t won a match here in two years, he went down in a deciding leg to Dimitri Van den Bergh two years ago and lost out to Luke Woodhouse last year with a 94.62 average which is ridiculous in this format. I always want players who don’t block doubles with their darts in this tournament and Chisnall doesn’t do that. I think with his form and record in the event he is a great bet this week.
Another player who doesn’t his starting double up is Ryan Joyce and I wonder if he has the draw to do some damage this week. Joyce beat Peter Wright in his only previous appearance in this a few years ago before going down to Dave Chisnall in a deciding set in the second round. Joyce has been to the final of a Players Championship event this season so he hasn’t lost any of his quality and his draw just looks lovely. Josh Rock is his first round opponent and he has only played here once and averaged in the mid-70s in it and then he’ll face the winner of Nathan Aspinall and Ryan Searle. The former is just back from injury and is a relentless misser of doubles while the latter can have mares on them too. Luke Littler and Rob Cross would be dangers in the quarter final but Littler is on debut and Cross’ record here is terrible. This draw always opens up in this tournament so if Joyce can beat Rock he could find it isn’t hard to go deep here.
Tips
Back D.Chisnall to win World Grand Prix (e/w) for a 1.5/10 stake at 26.00 with Boylesports (1/2 1-2)
Back him here:
Back R.Joyce to win World Grand Prix (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 151.00 with William Hill (1/2 1-2)
Back him here:
