Michael Smith battles past Suljovic after Van den Bergh gets off to winning start at Grand Slam of Darts 2024

Dimitri van den Bergh and Michael Smith have become the two latest names to get off to a winning start in the group stage of the 2024 Grand Slam of Darts in Wolverhampton.

In a showdown of two of darts' biggest characters, UK Open champion Dimitri van den Bergh faced off against the Philippines finest, Lourence Ilagan in their Group F opener. Van den Bergh took the opener with a solid hold of throw, before the always fidgety Ilagan got himself on the board with a hold of his own in leg 2.

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After holding his throw again in leg 3, Van den Bergh missed a total of eight darts to break the Ilagan throw in leg 4. Thankfully, Ilagan too couldn't pin a double so despite the Belgian's profligacy, he moved 3-1 ahead. After extending that to 4-1 in the next leg, Van den Bergh then sealed the victory in style with a stunning 164 checkout for the 5-1 win.

Champion at the Grand Slam two years ago, Michael Smith has a lot of prize money to defend this time around in Wolverhampton. 'BullyBoy' made a solid start too, opening up with a hold of throw against Mensur Suljovic. As expected though, it was the Austrian who was dictating the pace, slowing things down and stopping Smith from getting into a real rhythm.

Although continued to hold throw strongly, hitting maximums in each of the first three legs he started, the former Grand Slam champion couldn't make much inroads onto the Suljovic throw. That was, until leg 6 when Smith clicked in a stunning two double 19, 96 checkout to go 4-2 up with just one more leg needed to get the win on the board. A few moments later, Smith nailed double 3 to secure what was in the end, a comfortable win.

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