Mr. Vegas Grand Slam of Darts – Day 1

A couple of early missed doubles were to prove crucial as Leonard Gates slipped to an opening day 5-2 defeat at the hands of Rob Cross. As so often happens when competing on the other side of the pond, Americans get one shot at the out in a leg – so they’d better hit it! Unfortunately for ‘Soulger’,he didn’t.

The first leg saw him have a pop at 86, which saw him wire the last dart double bull. The 2018 World Champ wouldn’t give him another shot. At 2-1 down, he had a dart at tops. Cross then checked out from 89. It could so easily have been 3-1 to the Texan, but instead, he was 3-1 down.

The pair shared the next two legs, but with the Englishman just one leg from victory, it wasn’t to be.

Gates takes on Peter Wright tomorrow afternoon in the second round of group matches.

Elsewhere today, reigning Grand Slam Champion Luke Humphries slipped to a 5-3 defeat against Austrian Rowby-John Rodriguez, while Gary Anderson (113.20), Luke Littler (112.16), and Gian van Veen (110.39) produced the best performances of the day. There was disappointment for Beau Greaves, as the WDF Women’s World #1 fell short against Dutchman Danny Noppert. Missed doubles in the third and sixth legs were to prove costly for the 20-year-old.

Highlight of tomorrow’s play looks to be the Michael van Gerwen/Gary Anderson clash.

Live scoring and updates are available at the PDC website here

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