Rowby-John Rodriguez stuns Humphries in massive upset; Wattimena impresses in victory over De Decker at Grand Slam of Darts 2024

The first round of group stage matches have now been completed at the 2024 Grand Slam of Darts. Rounding out a brilliant opening day's action, Rowby-John Rodriguez shocked Luke Humphries in a massive upset, before Jermaine Wattimena defeated Mike de Decker on Saturday night in Wolverhampton.

After statement victories from the likes of Gary Anderson, Michael van Gerwen and Luke Littler earlier in the evening, defending Grand Slam of Darts champion Luke Humphries would have been looking to send a message of his own against Rowby-John Rodriguez. Although the world number one got off to the perfect start with a hold of throw in leg 1, things seemed a little flat for Cool Hand Luke and the Austrian took advantage to return a hold if throw of his own and the break throw to nudge infront.

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After a relatively comfortable hold of throw for Rodriguez in leg 4, the Austrian was quickly 3-1 ahead of Humphries, just two legs from a massive upset. Despite a handful more darts at double going wayward for Humphries in leg 4, the world champion stopped the rot on double 5 to get back to within one.

After turning down a shot at 170 in leg 6, Rodriguez returned to clean up on double 16 and get to one away. With Rodriguez then waiting on a finish for the match, Humphries pulled a stunning 164 out of the bag to pull one leg back. There was no comeback though as 'Little John' pinned a match winning 141 to seal the 5-3 victory in style.

Finally, two of the stars of recent majors faced off as World Grand Prix champion Mike de Decker did battle with European Championship runner-up Jermaine Wattimena. In a high quality contest, both players traded holds of throw until, in leg 6, Wattimena pounced with a stunning 160 finish to get himself 4-2 ahead and throwing for the match. Sealing victory with a bull-tops 90 checkout, Wattimena took the 5-2 win.

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