"I can play well and I can win" - Jermaine Wattimena has no fear heading into Luke Littler tie in Grand Slam quarterfinals

Jermaine Wattimena is into the quarterfinals of the Grand Slam of Darts for the first time in his career. The Machine Gun survived eight matchdarts against Dimitri Van den Bergh to prevail 10-9 in a thriller on Thursday night. In the quarterfinals, Wattimena will now take on Luke Littler, who also came through a decider against Mike De Decker.

Having trailed 4-0 early on, Wattimena cam back into the match well, winning seven of the next eight legs to get to 7-5 up. Eventually though, the contest went all the way to a deciding leg, where Van den Bergh had the darts. Incredibly though, the UK Open champion blew eight matchdarts allowing Wattimena to snatch victory in the most dramatic of circumstances.

“I thought it was all over. It was incredible,” admitted a relieved Wattimena in his post-match press conference afterwards. “This was a really difficult game, but a win is a win, and I’m looking forward to the quarter-finals."

"It's always a difficult game when we play each other. We have the same management, we're good friends, but yeah, you don't want to think about that when you're on the stage,'' Wattimena continues, referencing his close relationship with Van den Bergh. "I'm just so happy to win."

Wattimena had fallen out of the top 50 in the world rankings after the World Darts Championship in early January this year. Since then though, he has been resurgent, most recently reaching a first major final at the European Championship. Although the Dutchman lost out to Ritchie Edhouse on that final, confidence levels have never been higher for Wattimena. "Of course I got a lot of confidence from that," he explains. "I'm really sure I can do this now."

As mentioned, this puts the 36-year-old Dutchman in the quarterfinals of the 2024 Grand Slam of Darts, where Luke Littler awaits. "There are a lot of good players, but why not myself? I can play well and I can win," he concludes.