"Made another step forward here" - Gian van Veen stays positive despite narrow loss to Anderson in Grand Slam quarterfinals

Gian van Veen's 2024 Grand Slam of Darts run ended on Saturday night. The 22-year-old Dutchman eventually went down 16-14 against Gary Anderson in an exciting quarterfinal. Van Veen, who in his previous matches this week had always excelled with a 105+ average, didn't quite hit the heights against Anderson, averaging 'only' 97.38.

For Anderson, this is a tournament he calls one of his favourites albeit and potentially it could be his time as he dealt a blow to Van Veen in what was essentially a darting game of cat and mouse. Van Veen was kept at arms length throughout as Anderson showed his experience and guile to defeat the rising Dutchman.

"I didn't start the match well despite still taking a 3-2 lead at the first break," Van Veen admitted in a post-match interview with Dutch broadcasters Viaplay. "My first dart was often not right and then it becomes hard work, although I still made it an exciting match. It just wasn't there today."

Van Veen was pulling his shoulder a bit at one point, but isn't looking for excuses. "I didn't have an injury," he insists. "It just didn't feel as good as the past four games here, my shoulder seemed a little stuck. No idea what caused it, maybe the many games played already."

"At one point I also took a hit, I felt my energy level was starting to drop a bit. I kept hooking and the gap never really got big, but breaking him still proved difficult," the Dutchman continues. "He was on a double after twelve darts in almost every leg he was throwing first. Myself, I had quite a lot of trouble keeping my own legs."

Despite the defeat, Van Veen's takes a positive outlook at this week's performances in Wolverhampton. "I look back positively on the fact that I reached the quarter-finals here. I did not reach my best form, but was still close to qualifying for the semi-finals and made another step forward here."

Van Veen will be back in action next weekend at the Players Championship Finals. The 20th-seeded Dutchman will take on Scott Williams in the opening round.