The German qualification for the Grand Slam of Darts is taking a bitter turn. Six players fail in their first match. Only Lukas Wenig manages to pull off a surprise.
At the qualification tournament for the PDC Grand Slam of Darts (starting November 8th live on SPORT1 ), there was disappointment from a German perspective on Friday. Five German players were eliminated directly in the first round, thus having no chance to qualify for the tournament in Wolverhampton. Only Lukas Wenig triumphed with four wins.
Florian Hempel (4:5 against Nathan Rafferty) and Gabriel Clemens (2:5 against Jitse van der Wal), two players who have been regular participants in the World Championship in recent years, failed in their first match.
Additionally, Max Hopp (3:5 against Darryl Pilgrim), who had secured his ticket for the Players Championship Finals the day before, Maximilian Czerwinski (4:5 against Justin Hood), and Leon Weber (3:5 against Andy Boulton) also lost in the first round. Dominik Grüllich automatically advanced to the second round due to a bye but lost 3:5 to Ross Smith there.
Little Manages to Qualify
Ricardo Pietreczko initially had a better day, starting the tournament with a 5:2 win. However, “Pikachu” lost in the subsequent match to Austrian Mensur Suljovic, even though both players had a weak 3-dart average of just over 80.
The clearly best German player of the day was Lukas Wenig, who was the only one to secure four wins and qualified for the Grand Slam.
He won his opening match 5:2 and after Tom Bissell, also cleared the way by defeating Swede Oskar Lukasiak with a 5:0 win. Little impressed with a 3-dart average of 100.2.
He then fought his way past Thibault Tricole (5:4) into the final match against Dutchman Jermaine Wattimena. After leading 3:1, Wenig initially lost control of the game but kept his nerves in the deciding leg and won again 5:4.
Wright Also Disappoints in Qualification
In the qualification tournament for Tour Card Holders, a knockout system is played up to the round of 16. The eight winners receive a spot in the Grand Slam. Previously, players could secure their qualification through wins at major tournaments or on the European Tour. From a German perspective, Martin Schindler and Niko Springer succeeded in doing so.
But aside from the German players, the qualification also saw the elimination of some well-known darts stars. Raymond van Barneveld had to admit defeat to Dave Chisnall 2:5, and Dimitri Van den Bergh also lost 4:5 to Joshua Richardson.
Two-time world champion Peter Wright had an even worse day, losing 0:5 to Connor Scutt with only a 3-dart average of 85.71.
On the other hand, the 2023 world champion Michael Smith is back on the big stage. The Englishman won the last match of the day 5:3 against Pole Krzysztof Ratajski, thus moving another step closer to his old form.
Besides Smith and Wenig, Karel Sedlacek, Danny Noppert, Wessel Nijman, Connor Scutt, Luke Woodhouse, and Ricky Evans also won, making them part of the total 32 participants in the Grand Slam.