2020 Grand Slam of Darts explained

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.

The tournament's two-time defending champion was Gerwyn Price, who successfully defended his 2018 title by defeating Peter Wright 16–6 in 2019.^[1] 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.^[2]

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.^[3]

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.^[4]

Prize money

The prize fund for the Grand Slam was the same as 2019, with the winner getting £125,000.^[5]

Position (num. of players)		Prize money (Total: £550,000)
Winner	align=center	(1)	align=center	£125,000
Runner-up	align=center	(1)	align=center	£65,000
Semi-finalists	align=center	(2)	align=center	£40,000
Quarter-finalists	align=center	(4)	align=center	£20,000
Last 16	align=center	(8)	align=center	£10,000
Third in group	align=center	(8)	align=center	£7,500
Fourth in group	align=center	(8)	align=center	£4,000
Group winner bonus	align=center	(8)	align=center	£3,500

Qualifying

The 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.^[6] The Champions League of Darts was not held in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The qualifiers are:

PDC Qualifying Tournaments

PDC Main Tournaments
width=300	Tournament	width=50	Year	width=80	Position	width=200	Player		width=200	Qualifiers
PDC World Darts Championship	2020	Winner	Peter Wright	Peter Wright Gerwyn Price Glen Durrant Dimitri Van den Bergh Luke Humphries Michael van Gerwen Jonny Clayton Nathan Aspinall James Wade Damon Heta Jermaine Wattimena Lisa Ashton Gary Anderson Dirk van Duijvenbode Adam Gawlas Michael Smith Rob Cross
Grand Slam of Darts	2019	Winner	Gerwyn Price
Premier League Darts	2020	Winner	Glen Durrant
World Matchplay	2020	Winner	Dimitri Van den Bergh
World Grand Prix	2020	Winner	Gerwyn Price
PDC World Youth Championship	2019	Winner	Luke Humphries
Masters	2020	Winner	Peter Wright
UK Open	2020	Winner	Michael van Gerwen
European Championship	2020	Winner	Peter Wright
Players Championship Finals	2019	Winner	Michael van Gerwen
World Series of Darts Finals	2020	Winner	Gerwyn Price
PDC World Cup of Darts	2020	Winners	Gerwyn Price Jonny Clayton
PDC Home Tour	2020	Winner	Nathan Aspinall
PDC Summer Series	2020		James Wade
PDC Autumn Series	2020	Highest-placed	Damon Heta
PDC Winter Series	2020	Highest-placed	Jermaine Wattimena
PDC Women's Qualifier	2020	Winner	Lisa Ashton
PDC World Darts Championship	2020	Runner-up	Michael van Gerwen
Grand Slam of Darts	2019	Runner-up	Peter Wright
Premier League Darts	2020	Runner-up	Nathan Aspinall
World Matchplay	2020	Runner-up	Gary Anderson
World Grand Prix	2020	Runner-up	Dirk van Duijvenbode
PDC World Youth Championship	2019	Runner-up	Adam Gawlas
Masters	2020	Runner-up	Michael Smith
UK Open	2020	Runner-up	Gerwyn Price
European Championship	2020	Runner-up	James Wade
Players Championship Finals	2019	Runner-up	Gerwyn Price
World Series of Darts Finals	2020	Runner-up	Rob Cross
PDC World Cup of Darts	2020	Runners-Up	Michael Smith Rob Cross
Note: Players in italics had already qualified for the tournament.

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
width=150	Tournament	width=200	Event	width=80	Position	width=200	Player		width=200	Qualifiers
2020 European Tour
	Winner	Gerwyn Price	Joe Cullen Devon Petersen José de Sousa <	--18 19 20-->
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
width=150	Tournament	width=200	Event	width=80	Position	width=200	Player		width=200	Qualifiers
2020 PDC Pro Tour
	Winner	Gary Anderson	Ian White Ryan Searle
	Winner	Nathan Aspinall
	Winner	Ryan Searle
	Winner	Krzysztof Ratajski
	Winner	Peter Wright
	Winner	Gerwyn Price
	Winner	Nathan Aspinall
	Winner	Ian White
	Winner	Michael van Gerwen
	Winner	Ryan Joyce
	Winner	Michael van Gerwen
	Winner	James Wade
	Winner	Peter Wright
	Winner	Peter Wright
	Winner	Damon Heta
	Winner	Michael van Gerwen
	Winner	Gerwyn Price
	Winner	Gerwyn Price
	Winner	Michael Smith
	Winner	Michael Smith
	Winner	Gerwyn Price
	Winner	Peter Wright
	Winner	Joe Cullen
Note: Players in italics had already qualified for the tournament.

PDC Qualifying Event

A further eight places in the Grand Slam of Darts were filled by qualifiers from a PDC qualifier on 9 November.^[7] These are the qualifiers:

• Ricky Evans
• Adam Hunt
• Krzysztof Ratajski
• Ryan Joyce
• Dave Chisnall
• Simon Whitlock
• Justin Pipe
• Gabriel Clemens

BDO Invitees

The two BDO world champions were invited.

width=300	Tournament	width=50	Year	width=80	Position	width=200	Player
BDO World Darts Championship	2020	Men's Winner	Wayne Warren
			Mikuru Suzuki

Pools

width=220	Pool A	width=220	Pool B	width=220	Pool C	width=220	Pool D
(PDC Seeded Players)	(PDC Qualifiers & BDO Representatives)
Peter Wright (2) Gerwyn Price (3) Michael Smith (4) Rob Cross (5) Nathan Aspinall (6) James Wade (7) Gary Anderson (8)	Dave Chisnall Ian White Glen Durrant Krzysztof Ratajski Jonny Clayton Joe Cullen Simon Whitlock	Ricky Evans Gabriel Clemens Devon Petersen José de Sousa Luke Humphries Ryan Joyce Ryan Searle	Justin Pipe Damon Heta Adam Hunt Lisa Ashton Adam Gawlas

Draw

Group stage

All 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 A

width=20	Pos.	width=185	Player	width=20	P	width=20	W	width=20	L	width=20	LF	width=20	LA	width=25	+/−	width=20	Pts	width=70	Status
1		3	3	0	15	4	+11	6	Q
2	Adam Hunt (Q)	3	1	2	9	12	−3	2
3	Gabriel Clemens (Q)	3	1	2	8	12	−4	2	Eliminated
4		3	1	2	10	14	−4	2

16 November

17 November

19 November

Group B

width=20	Pos.	width=185	Player	width=20	P	width=20	W	width=20	L	width=20	LF	width=20	LA	width=25		width=20	Pts	width=70	Status
1		3	3	0	15	8	+7	6	Q
2		3	2	1	11	11	0	4
3		3	1	2	11	14	−3	2	Eliminated
4		3	0	3	11	15	−4	0

16 November

17 November

18 November

Group C

width=20	Pos.	width=185	Player	width=20	P	width=20	W	width=20	L	width=20	LF	width=20	LA	width=25	+/−	width=20	Pts	width=70	Status
1	Michael Smith (4)	3	3	0	15	5	+10	6	Q
2		3	2	1	12	10	+2	4
3		3	1	2	11	14	–3	2	Eliminated
4		3	0	3	6	15	−9	0

16 November

17 November

19 November

Group D

width=20	Pos.	width=185	Player	width=20	P	width=20	W	width=20	L	width=20	LF	width=20	LA	width=25		width=20	Pts	width=70	Status
1		3	3	0	15	8	+7	6	Q
2	Rob Cross (5)	3	2	1	12	8	+4	4
3		3	1	2	11	14	−3	2	Eliminated
4	Justin Pipe (Q)	3	0	3	7	15	−8	0

16 November

17 November

18 November

Group E

width=20	Pos.	width=185	Player	width=20	P	width=20	W	width=20	L	width=20	LF	width=20	LA	width=25		width=20	Pts	width=70	Status
1		3	3	0	15	6	+9	6	Q
2		3	1	2	10	11	−1	2
3	Peter Wright (2)	3	1	2	11	13	–2	2	Eliminated
4		3	1	2	8	14	−6	2

16 November

17 November

19 November

Group F

width=20	Pos.	width=185	Player	width=20	P	width=20	W	width=20	L	width=20	LF	width=20	LA	width=25	+/−	width=20	Pts	width=70	Status
1	James Wade (7)	3	3	0	15	7	+8	6	Q
2		3	2	1	12	10	+2	4
3		3	1	2	12	11	+1	2	Eliminated
4		3	0	3	4	15	−11	0

16 November

17 November

18 November

Group G

width=20	Pos.	width=185	Player	width=20	P	width=20	W	width=20	L	width=20	LF	width=20	LA	width=25	+/−	width=20	Pts	width=70	Status
1	Gerwyn Price (3)	3	3	0	15	11	+4	6	Q
2		3	2	1	13	9	+4	4
3	Ryan Joyce (Q)	3	1	2	13	11	+2	2	Eliminated
4		3	0	3	5	15	−10	0

16 November

17 November

19 November

Group H

width=20	Pos.	width=185	Player	width=20	P	width=20	W	width=20	L	width=20	LF	width=20	LA	width=25	+/−	width=20	Pts	width=70	Status
1		3	3	0	15	3	+12	6	Q
2	Nathan Aspinall (6)	3	2	1	11	6	+5	4
3	Ricky Evans (Q)	3	1	2	7	13	−6	2	Eliminated
4	Wayne Warren (BDO)	3	0	3	4	15	−11	0

16 November

17 November

18 November

Knockout stage

Notes and References

1. Web site: Peerless Price retains BoyleSports Grand Slam title. 17 November 2018. pdc.tv. 17 November 2019.
2. Web site: Prenderville . Paul . Grand Slam of Darts 2020: Nathan Aspinall halts Gerwyn Price's bid for third title . Sky Sports . 22 November 2020 . 22 November 2020.
3. Web site: Phillips . Josh . History-maker De Sousa defeats Wade in BoyleSports Grand Slam final . PDC . 24 November 2020 . 24 November 2020.
4. Web site: Simon Whitlock beats Michael van Gerwen in Grand Slam of Darts . BBC Sport. 23 November 2020.
5. Web site: PDC Order of Merit Rules. PDC. 15 January 2019.
6. Web site: Allen . Dave . 2020 Grand Slam qualification criteria confirmed . . 18 August 2020.
7. Web site: Phillips . Josh . Ricoh Arena to host three further TV events & Winter Series . . 30 September 2020.