World No 1 Gerwyn Price is among the 32 players that will contest the World Grand Prix in Leicester – watch all seven days of action from the Morningside Arena, starting on Sunday October 3 from 6pm on Sky Sports Arena.
Monday 27 September 2021 09:32, UK
Gerwyn Price warmed up for the defence of his World Grand Prix title with a stellar display on Finals Day to win the Gibraltar Darts Trophy – an 8-0 whitewash over Mensur Suljovic sealing the title in the final.
The second, and final, event of this year's truncated European Tour also saw the field for the Grand Prix and the European Championship set - but it is Price's triumph that continues another brilliant season for the Iceman.
Price, a victor at the Hungarian Darts Trophy earlier this month, had kicked off with a 6-1 win over Germany's Florian Hempel on Saturday but took his game to another level on Sunday averaging more than 100 for his four victories.
The reigning world champion started with a 6-3 win over Damon Heta to set up a monumental quarter-final clash with Michael van Gerwen and in a thrilling contest it was the Welshman who defied the Dutchman's 105 average to win a last leg shoot-out.
That victory saw Price through to a showdown with Nathan Aspinall where both players averaged more than 100 but Price prevailed 7-2 before his whitewash victory over Suljovic.
The Austrian has endured a tough 18 months and played little in the way of competitive darts but his run to the World Cup final with teammate Rowby-John Rodriguez seems to have kickstarted his career.
He took out Kim Huybrechts, Jose De Sousa, Krzysztof Ratajski and Simon Whitlock on route to the final where Price had too much for him - showing no ill effects to the elbow injury that had forced him to withdraw from the Nordic Darts Masters last week.
"It's been a brilliant weekend," said Price who picked up £25,000 for his weekend's work.
"In the final Mensur wasn't the player I know he can be, but I played fantastic in the semi-final, final and quarter-final so I'm thankful for that.
"This weekend I played really well all the way through and I think I'm a deserved winner."
"It [the elbow] wasn't very good in the World Cup, I could feel it then. [The Nordic Darts Masters] wasn't a ranked event, and I knew I had to prepare for this week, next week and all the big tournaments coming up.
"It worked. A lot of people doubted what I did but I knew what I had to do."
Victory in Gibraltar means Price has now won four titles this year, second only to Peter Wright while Suljovic has secured a spot at the European Championship, the World Grand Prix and the Grand Slam of Darts with his return to form.
Attention now switches to the World Grand Prix which starts the frantic final three months of the darting year where some of the sport's biggest prizes are up for grabs and for those at the other end of the scale their PDC Tour Cards are on the line.
Six debutants will take to the oche in Leicester for the World Grand Prix which starts on Sunday.
Damon Heta, Luke Humphries, Ross Smith, Callan Rydz, Martijn Kleermaker and Darius Labanauskas have all booked a first appearance in the double-to-start tournament which is being played away from Dublin for the second year in succession.
Price tops the seeds, with Wright, van Gerwen and James Wade completing the top four names. Gary Anderson, Dave Chisnall, Dimitri Van den Bergh and Jose de Sousa complete the seeded names.
A high class list of qualifiers includes 2017 winner Daryl Gurney and last year's runner-up Dirk van Duijvenbode who are among the 16 players to qualify via the ProTour Order of Merit - the draw takes place on Monday afternoon.
Darts is back on your Sky Sports screens in October, with seven days of World Grand Prix action from Leicester's Morningside Arena get underway on Sunday October 3 - join us from 6pm on Sky Sports Arena.
