HETA PUNISHES PIKACHU! 🇦🇺 Both players squander match darts in a dramatic finale, but it's Damon Heta who overcomes Ricardo Pietreczko to claim a precious two points in his Group H opener! 📺 bit.ly/GSODLive #GSOD | Group H
Damon Heta snatches deciding leg victory over Ricardo Pietreczko at Grand Slam before Andrew Gilding holds off Brendan Dolan fightback
PDCSaturday, 11 November 2023 at 15:13
The 2023 Grand Slam of Darts is underway in Wolverhampton and the first two winners at this year's event are Damon Heta and Andrew Gilding.
Opening the tournament was a Group H matchup between Damon Heta and Grand Slam debutant, Ricardo Pietreczko. In a nip-and-tuck affair, neither player was ever able to get themselves a two-leg buffer and although Heta was unusually slack on the outer ring, with his opponent repeatedly on hand to punish, a terrific 150 checkout from the Australian sent the match into a deciding leg.
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In the ninth and deciding leg though, Heta's doubling again deserted him, missing two darts for the match. Pietreczko was feeling the nerves himself however, and after inadvertently hitting treble 17 with 57 required, could not get the double 3. Heta returned, and this time made no mistake to snatch a 5-4 victory.
Next up was UK Open champion Andrew Gilding against Brendan Dolan from Group F. Kicking off in style, Dolan rattled in a first max with his opening three darts. The leg though, would go to 'Goldfinger'. Unlike the opening match where holds of throw were the norm, there was a flurry of breaks in this one. Gilding eventually managed to take the first hold and in turn extend his early advantage to 3-1.
A brilliant 96 finish made it 4-1 to the Englishman with another break of throw before Gilding missed four darts to wrap things up on double top in the following leg. A ruthless 104 checkout from Dolan in the next leg, then saw him pull back to within one leg. The comeback stopped there there though sadly for the Northern Irishman, Gilding a 5-3 winner.
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