"I think this is my best chance to win a major" - Ryan Joyce underlines title credentials after van Gerwen upset

Ryan Joyce is brimming with confidence following a stunning 2-1 defeat against Michael van Gerwen at the World Grand Prix. The doubles specialist has high hopes for the tournament, setting his ambitions higher than they have ever been before.

After falling behind, Joyce slowly crept back towards the six-time champion as his Dutch opponent continued to struggle on the outer ring. Joyce pinned 67% of his darts on the outer ring to finish a leg compared to the woeful 19% of van Gerwen and came out a worthy winner.

"Well, to be fair to Michael, I think if you go back five years, 10 years, he would have destroyed us," Joyce commented in his press conference with DartsNews.com after the victory. "But he wasn't at his best today. To be fair, it wasn't a great game of darts, but I don't know, it’s one of them where you thank your lucky stars and say, 'OK, I’ll take that.' I’ve got a bit of luck, so I’ll try and do better the next round."

He mentioned the caveat of van Gerwen not being at his best. The three-time world champion has continued to struggle on the oche in 2026 and is in serious danger of slipping down the rankings. With this came the hope for 'Relentless' that he could cause an upset with Van Gerwen not the ominous threat he was a few years ago.

"Well, I’ve played Michael for the last decade. I’ve played him when he’s been at his best, I’ve played him when he hasn’t played well, and I’ve beaten him in both scenarios. So I always have confidence in my own ability that I can play well," Joyce said.

"But I didn’t play well tonight, and that made me feel like I was lucky that Michael wasn’t at his best either, and I managed to scrape a win. I would have liked to have beaten him when we both had a 100 average, for example. That would have been better. But it’s just another game. You can only play the game against whoever’s in front of you. It doesn’t matter if it’s Michael van Gerwen or anybody else. I don’t think about it in terms of who I’m playing. I just try and play my game and not worry about what my opponent’s doing or how good my opponent is."

Round one is always a nervy affair for the players. Getting into your rhythm with the double-in, double-out format having a tendency of causing a lot of havoc with the best-of-three sets format a brutal scoring system.

With this tournament boasting the best players in the world, Joyce was relieved to get past this first hurdle with a confidence boost injected. "I hope so. Yeah, you’re right about the format. You feel like you can make one mistake and that could be it. Everybody that qualifies for the Grand Prix, they’re all fantastic players, and yeah, it’s really tough. One mistake can cost you the game, really."

After years of experience, being in front of the TV cameras and thousands of passionate fans playing the best players in the world has become second nature to Joyce. "It’s just like anything you do in life. Forget about darts or sport in general, just anything in life. Once you’ve got lots of experience and years of experience doing something, it just feels much more comfortable, doesn’t it?

"It’s like your first day at high school. It’s nerve-wracking, it’s horrible, but after five years at high school, you don’t feel any nerves at all, do you? I would describe playing professional darts like that. It’s really tough playing players with the profile of Michael van Gerwen when you first play them on the stage, but after you’ve played them 10, 15, 20 times, it’s just like a game of darts. You’re just doing your job."

It says a lot that Joyce took down a player who has won this tournament on six prior occasions and is still bemoaning about his performance. One of the best doublers on the planet, when Joyce gets it right on double 16, even the elite darters struggle to keep up.

That what makes the 2024 semi-finalist so dangerous. "I do feel comfortable. I do feel confident, and I was so disappointed that that didn’t really show tonight."

There is still time to get his game right on stage, but the signs behind the scenes are promising. "I feel like if I had been playing like I have been in practice, I feel like I would have won the game two sets to nil easily. It sounds big-headed, it sounds stupid to say that, I’m playing Michael van Gerwen, but yeah, the way Michael played, I feel like I should have won more comfortably instead of relying on him missing lots of doubles, really, and a couple of legs."

The Englishman has reached the semi-final of a major tournament on two occasions, once at the World Grand Prix in 2024 and the Players Championship Finals in 2023. That elusive major title could be in range for him this week with the field blown open not just by his win over van Gerwen, but with the reigning champion Luke Littler departing.

Joyce believes this is his time to strike. "I think so, yeah. I’ve said that over the years and I still say it now. I think this is my best chance to win a major, definitely, especially with players like Luke Humphries and Luke Littler, who are unbelievable superstars with natural ability.

"I just can’t match them, and I never have and probably never will. But in this format, I’ve got an outside chance. I feel like in a match-play format, for example, if I was playing Luke Littler in the final, I’d probably think, 'I haven’t got no chance here.' But in this format, if I bump into him in the quarter-final, I feel like I will have a chance."