Ruthless Van Gerwen punishes Van Leuven on history making Grand Slam debut before Luke Littler fires 10th highest tournament average ever

Michael van Gerwen and Luke Littler have both got off to a winning start at the 2024 Grand Slam of Darts with whitewash, 5-0 victories over Noa-Lynn van Leuven and Keane Barry respectively.

One of the most eagerly anticipated games in the entire group stage, the history making debut for the first trans player to ever compete in a televised PDC major Noa-Lynn van Leuven, was over in double quick time sadly for the Dutchwoman. Although Van Leuven had the first dart at double in the contest, she missed that dart in the opening leg and a ruthless Van Gerwen punished emphatically from there, racing through the match in five uncontested legs, whitewashing Van Leuven and moving top of the group after Gary Anderson had beaten Ryan Joyce 5-1 in the other game in the group earlier in the night.

In the next contest, Luke Littler and Keane Barry faced off in a battle of two Grand Slam of Darts debutants. Littler has had a rough time of things in TV majors of late, suffering a string of first round exits. There was no signs of nerves early in this one though as the 17-year-old secured a comfortable hold in the opening leg, before firing off with six perfect darts leg 2, eventually breaking throw in 11 to move two legs clear.

A 121 finished off on the bullseye then made it 3-0 for Littler as his average nudged up over the 120 mark! Despite some missed darts at double from 'The Nuke' in leg 4 dropping that average down slightly, his scoring power had given him plenty of time and he eventually mopped up the leg. A few moments later, he pinned double 10 for the whitewash win. In the process, Littler fired in the 10th highest average in the long and storied history of the Grand Slam of Darts.