World Grand Prix (2020)
The World Grand Prix held annually in Dublin, is one of the most unique ranking events on the calendar, with players having to both start and finish each leg with a double. A total prize pot for 2020 of £450,000 represents the biggest prize fund ever for this event, the winner taking home a whopping £110,000.
Due to the nature of the sporting calendar this year, at this stage the only real barometers for players form going into the World Grand Prix are the World Matchplay and Players Championship. The former was played out in July and threw up some of the most surprising results in recent memory, with 10 of the top 12 seeds exiting at the second-round stage or earlier.
Despite this, the bookies, and fans favorite to take the top prize will be the 2019 winner and top seed perennial winner, Michael van Gerwen. Winning 5 out of the last 8 World Grand Prix’s, it would be easy to put the 3-time world champion as a dead cert to go deep into the tournament. However, an early second round exit from the World Matchplay will raise a few questions as to whether MVG has come out of lockdown with the same rich vein of form we have become so used to seeing from the Dutchman.
Having also suffered shock losses to the likes of World No.77 Joe Murnan and World No.52 Devon Peterson in the Players Championship, many other top players will fancy their chances at this tournament.
One of those who will fancy his chances, is the man who beat MVG in this year’s World Championship final, Peter ‘Snakebite’ Wright. The Scot arguably hit the form of his life pre-lockdown winning the World Championship and The Masters within a month of each other, his first major championships since 2017. It remains to be seen whether Wright has retained this form through lockdown, but his second round World Matchplay exit at the hands of Glen Durrant would suggest not.
The two apparent exceptions to the post-lockdown blues are Michael Smith and Gary Anderson. Smith lost in the semi-final of the World Matchplay whilst Gary Anderson fell at the final hurdle in the final. With the rest of the top 12 seemingly floundering since the return of darts these two will be hoping to take advantage.
Michael Smith, 29, is yet to win a major PDC title, but has put in some impressive performances in recent years and will earmark this tournament as one of the biggest opportunities he will get to prove his world class pedigree.
The ever-present Gary Anderson has won almost everything there is to win in the game. However, that ‘almost’ does not include the World Grand Prix. If he can show the rich vein of form that took him to the final of the World Matchplay, the Flying Scotsman is in with a great shout of finally adding this jewel to his crown.
At the World Matchplay, Dimitri Van der Bergh became the first player ever to win the tournament on debut. The highly tipped youngster nicknamed ‘The DreamMaker’, will be hoping to upset the odds once again. If the worlds best find the form that they are capable of, this should be a more difficult challenge than the previous tournament, but confidence will be sky high and the young-man will be backing himself to go all the way again.
Covid-19 has also provided a change in qualification rules for the tournament, with less BDO and amateur payers being given spots, and the field being populated by the top PDC players instead. This will only act to increase the quality of the field. And with huge names such as James Wade, Adrian Lewis, Gerwyn Price, Rob Cross and Nathan Aspinall all also in the field, no one is in for an easy ride to the final. Any player who fancies their chances to go all the way will surely have to hit top form right from the off.
The usual big hitters will undoubtedly be the favorites to shrug off the post-lockdown struggles and go deep into the tournament again. However, if the 2020 World Matchplay is anything to go by, this promises to be a nightmare for the bookies to call and one of the most wide-open tournaments we have seen in recent times.