Michael van Gerwen's barren year continues, dumped out of Grand Slam of Darts group stage in 14 year first by Ryan Joyce

For Michael van Gerwen, the Grand Slam of Darts ended in a huge deception. The 35-year-old Dutchman lost to Ryan Joyce in his final group match, which means Van Gerwen misses out on a spot in the knockout stage.

It has been a long time since Van Gerwen failed to make it through the group stage of the major tournament in Wolverhampton. In his first three appearances in 2007, 2008 and 2010 'Mighy Mike' failed in the group stage each time. Since then he always reached the last sixteen, but that streak has come to an end.

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It was not a best match from either Van Gerwen or Joyce. Both men came to an average of 93, but on the doubles Joyce was slightly sharper; 50 to 31 percent. In the first leg of the match, Van Gerwen missed a chance to take the lead, then was immediately broken by his English opponent via a 79 finish.

Joyce then produced a 16-darter to double the lead to 2-0. Van Gerwen then came back to 2-2 with a 16-darter and a 65 finish, but missed as many as six chances to take over the lead. That gift was unwrapped by Joyce, who hit the double 8 to grab another break. A 25 finish then brought "Relentless" to 4-2. However, Van Gerwen still seemed to rally and came back to 4-4 with an 11-darter and a 14-darter.

The three-time world champion then had a leg-decider to determine which player would advance to the last sixteen. 'Mighty Mike' threw a treble in each of his first four visits, but was thwarted by a 171 score from Joyce. From 112 Van Gerwen could still have a shot for the win, but the three-time Grand Slam champion did not get a matchdart. Joyce then got the chance from 80 and with his first matchdart Joyce took the match.

Joyce will therefore advance to the last sixteen at the Grand Slam of Darts together with Gary Anderson from Group G. The Englishman will face Gian van Veen at the start of the knockout phase, while Anderson will face the winner of the duel between Stephen Bunting and Josh Rock.

Dimitri van den Bergh has also secured a spot in the second round. After a victory over Lourence Ilagan and a defeat against Luke Littler, 'The Dreammaker' had to win from Keane Barry to continue. The Belgian succeeded in that mission by winning 5-1 over his Irish rival.

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