Price beats Van Gerwen for the first time in Grand Slam epic to set up final showdown with Wright

Gerwyn Price has finally banished former demons and defeated Michael van Gerwen for the first time in his career in a match that will go down in history as a Grand Slam epic.

Price ended up winning 16-12 to reach a second successive final and he will now take on Peter Wright later on.

Price got out of the gates excellently against Van Gerwen as the latter struggled to get going missing multiple darts at double and 'The Iceman' as a result went into a 4-1 lead going into the first interval and looked good in the process.

Van Gerwen's prowess over him though record wise was something that had to be thought of though and he was soon breaking down his neck at 4-3 down but despite Van Gerwen chipping away at him, Price kept him at arms length at 6-4 up at the second interval.

MVG pressured with a 180 on his own throw but a clutch 48 checkout saw him go 7-4 up. Van Gerwen had a brutal response as he took out 124 to trail 7-5 but Van Gerwen failed to consolidate the break with a hold as Price relied straight away to make it 8-5.

Price missed two darts though and Van Gerwen got away with it pinning double one last dart in hand to trail 8-6.

The momentum swung again in the favour of Van Gerwen as he went 7-8 behind with a seventh 180 and an 82 checkout to go within one.

Price smashed in a 130 checkout to lead 9-7 but Van Gerwen potentially turned the tide making it 9-9 breaking back.

'The Iceman' showed true bottle though breaking to lead 10-9 again and at the break after potentially staring down the barrel, he was 11-9 up holding with a brilliant 104 checkout to lead by two again.

Van Gerwen took out 80 to stay in touch at 11-10 behind. Price though held throw to continue what he needed to do.

Van Gerwen held throw with a huge last dart to go 12-11 behind but Price went only three away from the winning line at 13-11 up.

Price broke throw to extend his lead to 14-11, the question from there was whether he could hold it together and finalise the victory.

Price went one away but he squandered two match darts and the questions started to begin but he answered them excellently smashing in double ten and letting out an almighty roar in claiming victory.

Click here to view more information on the Grand Slam of Darts, the only cross-code tournament on the PDC calendar.

Grand Slam of Darts 2019 schedule

Semi-finals

Peter Wright (97.34) 16-11 (94.28) Glen Durrant

Michael van Gerwen (101.91) 12-16 (100.73) Gerwyn Price

https://twitter.com/OfficialPDC/status/1196099220601655298?s=20