The 2020 BoyleSports Grand Slam of Darts was the fourteenth staging of the Grand Slam of Darts, organised by the Professional Darts Corporation. The event took place, behind closed doors, from 16 to 24 November 2020 at the Ricoh Arena, Coventry.[1]
| 2020 BoyleSports Grand Slam of Darts | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Tournament information | |||
| Dates | 16–24 November 2020 | ||
| Venue | Ricoh Arena | ||
| Location | Coventry | ||
| Country |  England | ||
| Organisation(s) | PDC | ||
| Format | Legs | ||
| Prize fund | £550,000 | ||
| Winner's share | £125,000 | ||
| High checkout | 164 Joe Cullen (group stage) | ||
| Champion(s) | |||
 José de Sousa | |||
| |||
The tournament's two-time defending champion was Gerwyn Price, who successfully defended his 2018 title by defeating Peter Wright 16–6 in 2019.[2] Price's title defence came to an end when, after surviving a match dart from Ryan Joyce to progress through the group stage, he eventually lost 10–8 to Nathan Aspinall in the last 16.[3]
José de Sousa became the first Portuguese darts player to win a televised title by beating James Wade 16–12 in the final; de Sousa also became the first debutant since the tournament's inception to win the title, as well as the first to win the title, without finishing top in the group phase.[4]
Dimitri Van den Bergh broke the record for the highest individual average for this tournament when he beat Ricky Evans 5–1 in the group stage, averaging 114.85, beating Phil Taylor's previous record of 114.65 set in the 2014 tournament. Additionally, Simon Whitlock broke Adrian Lewis' record of hitting the most 180s in a Grand Slam match by scoring 20 maximums in his quarter-final victory over Michael van Gerwen.[5]
Prize money
editThe prize fund for the Grand Slam was the same as 2019, with the winner getting £125,000.[6]
| Position (num. of players) | Prize money (Total: £550,000) | |
|---|---|---|
| Winner | (1) | £125,000 |
| Runner-up | (1) | £65,000 |
| Semi-finalists | (2) | £40,000 |
| Quarter-finalists | (4) | £20,000 |
| Last 16 | (8) | £10,000 |
| Third in group | (8) | £7,500 |
| Fourth in group | (8) | £4,000 |
| Group winner bonus | (8) | £3,500 |
Qualifying
editThe qualification criteria were changed from 2019, with the number of entrants from the British Darts Organisation being reduced from eight to two, with a corresponding increase in PDC players. The winner of the 2020 PDC Home Tour was invited, as were the top players from the PDC's Summer, Autumn and Winter Series events and the winner of the new women's qualifier.[7] The Champions League of Darts was not held in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The qualifiers are:
PDC Qualifying Tournaments
edit
At most twenty-two players could have qualified through this method, where the position in the list depicts the priority of the qualification.
Since the list of qualifiers from the main tournaments produced fewer than twenty-two players, the field of twenty-two players was filled from the reserve lists. The first list consisted of the winners from 2020 European Tour events, in which the winners were ordered by Order of Merit position order at the cut-off date.
| PDC European Tour | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tournament | Event | Position | Player | Qualifiers | |
| 2020 European Tour | |||||
| Belgian Darts Championship | Winner |  Gerwyn Price
|
Joe Cullen Devon Petersen José de Sousa
| ||
| German Darts Championship | Winner | Devon Petersen
| |||
| European Darts Grand Prix | Winner | José de Sousa
| |||
| International Darts Open | Winner | Joe Cullen
| |||
| Note: Players in italics had already qualified for the tournament. | |||||
Since there were still less than twenty-two qualified players after the winners of European Tour events were added, the winners of 2020 Players Championships events were added, in Order of Merit order.
| PDC Pro Tour | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tournament | Event | Position | Player | Qualifiers | |
| 2020 PDC Pro Tour | |||||
| Players Championship 1 | Winner |  Gary Anderson
|
Ian White Ryan Searle
| ||
| Players Championship 2 | Winner | Nathan Aspinall
| |||
| Players Championship 3 | Winner | Ryan Searle
| |||
| Players Championship 4 | Winner |  Krzysztof Ratajski[a]
| |||
| Players Championship 5 | Winner | Peter Wright
| |||
| Players Championship 6 | Winner | Gerwyn Price
| |||
| Players Championship 7 | Winner | Nathan Aspinall
| |||
| Players Championship 8 | Winner | Ian White
| |||
| Players Championship 9 | Winner |  Michael van Gerwen
| |||
| Players Championship 10 | Winner | Ryan Joyce[b]
| |||
| Players Championship 11 | Winner | Michael van Gerwen
| |||
| Players Championship 12 | Winner | James Wade
| |||
| Players Championship 13 | Winner | Peter Wright
| |||
| Players Championship 14 | Winner | Peter Wright
| |||
| Players Championship 15 | Winner |  Damon Heta
| |||
| Players Championship 16 | Winner | Michael van Gerwen
| |||
| Players Championship 17 | Winner | Gerwyn Price
| |||
| Players Championship 18 | Winner | Gerwyn Price
| |||
| Players Championship 19 | Winner | Michael Smith
| |||
| Players Championship 20 | Winner | Michael Smith
| |||
| Players Championship 21 | Winner | Gerwyn Price
| |||
| Players Championship 22 | Winner | Peter Wright
| |||
| Players Championship 23 | Winner | Joe Cullen
| |||
| Note: Players in italics had already qualified for the tournament. | |||||
PDC Qualifying Event
editA further eight places in the Grand Slam of Darts were filled by qualifiers from a PDC qualifier on 9 November.[1] These are the qualifiers:
Ricky Evans- Adam Hunt
Krzysztof Ratajski- Ryan Joyce
- Dave Chisnall
Simon Whitlock- Justin Pipe
Gabriel Clemens
BDO Invitees
editThe two BDO world champions were invited.
| Tournament | Year | Position | Player |
|---|---|---|---|
| BDO World Darts Championship | 2020 | Men's Winner | Wayne Warren
|
| Women's Winner |  Mikuru Suzuki
|
Pools
edit| Pool A | Pool B | Pool C | Pool D |
|---|---|---|---|
| (PDC Seeded Players) | (PDC Qualifiers & BDO Representatives) | ||
|
|
|
|
|
Draw
editGroup stage
editAll group matches are best of nine legs
After three games, the top two in each group qualify for the knock-out stage
NB: P = Played; W = Won; L = Lost; LF = Legs for; LA = Legs against; +/− = Plus/minus record, in relation to legs; Pts = Points; Status = Qualified to knockout stage
Group Aedit
16 November
17 November
19 November
|
Group Bedit
16 November
17 November
18 November
|
Group Cedit
16 November
17 November
19 November
|
Group Dedit
16 November
17 November
18 November
|
Group Eedit
16 November
17 November
19 November
|
Group Fedit
16 November
17 November
18 November
|
Group Gedit
16 November
17 November
19 November
|
Group Hedit
16 November
17 November
18 November
|
Knockout stage
edit| Second round (best of 19 legs) 20–21 November | Quarter-finals (best of 31 legs) 22 November | Semi-finals (best of 31 legs) 23 November | Final (best of 31 legs) 24 November | ||||||||||||||||
| A1 | Michael van Gerwen (1) 101.81
| 10 | |||||||||||||||||
| B2 | Gary Anderson (8) 96.98
| 2 | |||||||||||||||||
| A1 | Michael van Gerwen (1) 100.32
| 15 | |||||||||||||||||
| B1 | Simon Whitlock (Q) 95.97
| 16 | |||||||||||||||||
| B1 | Simon Whitlock (Q) 87.05
| 10 | |||||||||||||||||
| A2 | Adam Hunt (Q) 86.68
| 6 | |||||||||||||||||
| B1 | Simon Whitlock (Q) 97.92
| 12 | |||||||||||||||||
| C2 | José de Sousa 97.53
| 16 | |||||||||||||||||
| C1 | Michael Smith (4) 97.46
| 10 | |||||||||||||||||
| D2 | Rob Cross (5) 95.18
| 9 | |||||||||||||||||
| C1 | Michael Smith (4) 95.74
| 14 | |||||||||||||||||
| C2 | José de Sousa 98.52
| 16 | |||||||||||||||||
| D1 | Dave Chisnall (Q) 91.28
| 7 | |||||||||||||||||
| C2 | José de Sousa 95.37
| 10 | |||||||||||||||||
| C2 | José de Sousa 99.95
| 16 | |||||||||||||||||
| F1 | James Wade (7) 94.26
| 12 | |||||||||||||||||
| E1 | Devon Petersen 94.25
| 7 | |||||||||||||||||
| F2 | Damon Heta 93.75
| 10 | |||||||||||||||||
| F2 | Damon Heta 98.26
| 13 | |||||||||||||||||
| F1 | James Wade (7) 101.66
| 16 | |||||||||||||||||
| F1 | James Wade (7) 98.18
| 10 | |||||||||||||||||
| E2 | Ian White 99.44
| 4 | |||||||||||||||||
| F1 | James Wade (7) 98.61
| 16 | |||||||||||||||||
| H1 |  Dimitri Van den Bergh 96.87
| 15 | |||||||||||||||||
| G1 | Gerwyn Price (3) 90.73
| 8 | |||||||||||||||||
| H2 | Nathan Aspinall (6) 96.86
| 10 | |||||||||||||||||
| H2 | Nathan Aspinall (6) 94.92
| 15 | |||||||||||||||||
| H1 | Dimitri Van den Bergh 97.80
| 16 | |||||||||||||||||
| H1 | Dimitri Van den Bergh 103.61
| 10 | |||||||||||||||||
| G2 | Jonny Clayton 88.53
| 3 | |||||||||||||||||
References
edit- ^ a b Phillips, Josh. "Ricoh Arena to host three further TV events & Winter Series". Professional Darts Corporation. Retrieved 30 September 2020.
- ^ "Peerless Price retains BoyleSports Grand Slam title". pdc.tv. 17 November 2018. Retrieved 17 November 2019.
- ^ Prenderville, Paul (22 November 2020). "Grand Slam of Darts 2020: Nathan Aspinall halts Gerwyn Price's bid for third title". Sky Sports. Retrieved 22 November 2020.
- ^ Phillips, Josh (24 November 2020). "History-maker De Sousa defeats Wade in BoyleSports Grand Slam final". PDC. Retrieved 24 November 2020.
- ^ "Simon Whitlock beats Michael van Gerwen in Grand Slam of Darts". BBC Sport. 23 November 2020.
- ^ "PDC Order of Merit Rules". PDC. Retrieved 15 January 2019.
- ^ Allen, Dave. "2020 Grand Slam qualification criteria confirmed". Professional Darts Corporation. Retrieved 18 August 2020.