Mike De Decker and Dimitri Van den Bergh reverse roles on the second day of the Grand Slam of Darts: Belgians still in the race for the last 16

The World Grand Prix winner had his back against the wall after his 5-2 defeat to an unleashed Jermaine Wattimena. De Decker threw an average of 99, but saw the Dutchman finish 160 to break and throw an average of 104. So it was all hands on deck for De Decker against Suljovic, the now 52-year-old Austrian who eliminated him in the second round two World Cups ago.

Suljovic – who lost his first match against ex-world champion Michael Smith – had won the bull and was therefore allowed to start. Not an insignificant advantage in a game with only five winning legs. De Decker immediately had a break opportunity, but missed double 20 for a 74 finish, after which Suljovic made it 1-0. De Decker then hesitantly started his own leg, but The Gentle did not take advantage and so our compatriot was able to make it 1-1 with his fourth chance.

The slow game of the Austrian clearly suited De Decker less than the fast throwing of Wattimena. There was also a bug when he had to finish 87 before the break. De Decker looked angrily at the beast and shot the 2-1 on the board via double 5. He then increased his average of 89 with his first 180, but then missed double after double for 3-1. Result: a rebreak from Suljovic for 2-2.

De Decker was visually frustrated, but showed his mental toughness with a new 180 score and 80 finish for a new break: 3-2. The Real Deal then tolerated no opposition on its own leg and finished 64 for 4-2. One more to go for his first ever Grand Slam victory. And with a 59 finish he took the scalp of Suljovic: 5-2.

In the other match in the group, Smith and Wattimena competed against each other. And the Dutchman won with a clear 5-1 score, which means that The Machine Gun is already assured of a place in the first two and therefore a ticket for the last sixteen.

De Decker will meet former world champion Smith in his last group match. The winner of this match advances together with Wattimena. In principle, De Decker can still become group winner, but then the Dutchman would have to lose heavily to Suljovic and our compatriot would have to win heavily against Smith at the same time.

Van den Bergh

Dimitri Van den Bergh faced an extremely difficult task to beat Luke Littler, who defeated Keane Barry 5-0 and 112 on average in his debut match. The DreamMaker had won 5-2 against Lourence Ilagan and was allowed to start first, always an advantage in this short format. However, he immediately saw The Nuke take the break on double 10. And Littler immediately advanced to 2-0 with a 105 finish.

Littler then hit a 180 on Van den Bergh’s throw, who could not finish 109 and saw the 17-year-old phenomenon reach 3-0. The DreamMaker could not keep up in scoring and had not yet managed a double after four legs, while Littler took advantage of four out of five double opportunities. Van den Bergh then got on the board with a nice 66 finish: bull and double 8. Good for Littler’s first leg loss at the Grand Slam. But that was it. Littler – who threw an average of 108 – finished it off on ‘his’ double 10: 5-1.

Van den Bergh will face Keane Barry on Tuesday for a place in the next round. Littler meets the already eliminated Ilagan for a training match.

Humphries out

A major surprise in Group A. World champion and defending champion Luke Humphries also lost his second after his first match and was immediately eliminated. “I have had other things on my mind as my son has not been feeling well lately,” he said. The battle for group victory is between Mickey Mansell, James Wade and Rowby-John Rodriguez.