World Grand Prix 2020 final preview - Gerwyn Price vs Dirk van Duijvenbode

We all predicted Gerwyn Price vs Dirk van Duijvenbode in the World Grand Prix final, right?

It's been a tournament of twists and turns. World number three Price meeting 2019 runner-up Dave Chisnall in one semi-final wasn't exactly hard to picture. World number 73 Dirk van Duijvenbode playing Simon Whitlock, who didn't even qualify, couldn't have been foreseen by Nostradamus on steroids. Now we're all set for a World Grand Prix final that's a David vs Goliath in terms of major pedigree (and Goliath vs Goliath in terms of build). Get ready for some fist-pumping, heavy metal madness.

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The fairytale finalist

Aubergines!

Back in February, Dirk van Duijvenbode reached his first ever PDC semi-final. He then did it again a month later, as well as posting his best performance at a major, by getting to the fifth round of the UK Open. In May, he beat off the competition of more than 1500 people to become the Online Darts world champion. It's been a good year for the Dutchman. This is one giant moon-step past all that.

His opening game against Mensur Suljovic was, frankly, one of the worst we've seen at the World Grand Prix. Once that ordeal of a maiden match was out of the way, Van Duijvenbode has gone from strength to strength. Dimitri van den Bergh was swatted aside, and Gary Anderson was stunned. Simon Whitlock, fresh off a big win over the world number one, was no match for him.

Van Duijvenbode is the first Dutchman other than Michael van Gerwen or Raymond van Barneveld to reach a major televised final since 2007. He's also the first debutant other than Phil Taylor and Rod Harrington to reach the final - though for Taylor and Harrington, that achievement's asterisked when you consider that it was the first ever Grand Prix. No matter which way you cut it, what the Titan has done here has been astounding.

What's been the key to his success so far? It's mostly down to that green strip that lives just beneath the double eight. Van Duijvenbode has opened his legs better than a Cirque du Soleil acrobat. He has doubled in better than any other player at this tournament. When he took on Anderson, a match that easily could've got hairy for him, Van Duijvenbode took fewer than two darts per leg on average to start the leg, compared to Anderson's three. In this tournament, a strong start is absolutely pivotal.

The scoring's improving at the right time, too; he struck ten 180s against Whitlock in the semi-finals. Against a big scorer like Price, that proclivity for the treble 20 will need to hang around for another night.

No matter what happens in this final, Van Duijvenbode will return to the aubergine farm and get back to work. But life won't be the same again, should he return home a major champion.

The Iceman keeps his cool

Despite all his previous success, Gerwyn Price is in untested waters here. The Welshman is in the crowd-less isolation bubble, far from his young family, and is having to draw on his reserves of mental fortitude to keep on top of things.

In darting terms, it's been a lot more straightforward - or it was at first, anyway. Neither Jermaine Wattimena, Kim Huybrechts nor Jeffrey de Zwaan could lay a glove on the two-time Grand Slam champion.

And then came Chizzy. At 3-1 up, by his own admission, Price thought it was in the bag. But that's not the way that Dave Chisnall operates. It meant that Price had to end up riding his luck; but he'd earned a bit of that. It may be just the jolt he needs to add another major title in his quest to sweep the lot of them.

The story of Price's tournament is that of largely good play, garnished by flashes of utter brilliance. Record match averages haven't been threatened at all but some sets have been of the very highest quality. What's more is that the Iceman is staying very cool under pressure. Seven of the sets he has contested went to a deciding leg, including the very last one of his semi-final. Price won every single one of them.

Head to head

When someone is said to have a 'ten out of ten' record, that's normally just an expression. But in this case, Gerwyn Price has met Dirk van Duijvenbode on a PDC oche ten times, and has won ten times.

When Van Duijvenbode reached his first two PDC semi-finals, it was Price who stopped him in his tracks on both occasions.

How fitting it would be then, were he to reverse the charges on the biggest stage of his life.

Price's A-game is better than anything Van Duijvenbode - anyone in fact, right now - can muster. But the World Grand Prix's unique format isn't conducive to nurturing the A-game. Instead, it's all about mastery of the outer ring. Van Duijvenbode has struck up a brilliant relationship with the double 16 so far, and will need to keep it that way.

So who'll come out on top - the 200/1 dark horse who has never had a sniff of a major final, or the man who, in spite of his pedigree, won just three games in his five World Grand Prix outings prior?

Either way, we're seeing history unfold here. And it could well be spectacular. One of this duo will join Phil Taylor, Alan Warriner, Colin Lloyd, James Wade, Robert Thornton, Daryl Gurney and Michael van Gerwen in the pantheon of champions.