The 2021 Cazoo Grand Slam of Darts was the fifteenth staging of the Grand Slam of Darts, organised by the Professional Darts Corporation. The event returned to the Aldersley Leisure Village, Wolverhampton between 13–21 November 2021, after being held behind closed doors at the Ricoh Arena, Coventry in 2020.
José de Sousa was the defending champion, after defeating James Wade 16–12 in the 2020 final,[1] but he was eliminated in the second round, losing 10–9 to Peter Wright.
Gerwyn Price won the tournament for the third time in four years, defeating Peter Wright 16–8 in the final.[2]
Due to the dissolution of the British Darts Organisation in 2020, there was no BDO/WDF representation for the first time in the event's history.[3]
During her 5–0 victory over Mike De Decker in the group stage, Fallon Sherrock averaged 101.55, setting a new record for the highest televised average by a woman.[4] She then went on to become the first woman to advance to the knockout stage, where she defeated Mensur Suljović in the second round, before losing to Peter Wright in the quarterfinals.
Michael van Gerwen set a new Grand Slam record average of 115.19 during his 5–2 victory over Joe Cullen,[4] surpassing the record set by Dimitri Van den Bergh the previous year.
Prize money
The prize fund for the Grand Slam was the same as 2019 and 2020, with the winner receiving £125,000.[5]
Position (num. of players) | Prize money (Total: £550,000) | |
---|---|---|
Winner | (1) | £125,000 |
Runner-up | (1) | £65,000 |
Semi-finalists | (2) | £40,000 |
Quarter-finalists | (4) | £20,000 |
Last 16 | (8) | £10,000 |
Third in group | (8) | £7,500 |
Fourth in group | (8) | £4,000 |
Group winner bonus | (8) | £3,500 |
Qualifying
The qualification criteria changed again for the 2021 tournament, as there were no Summer, Autumn or Winter Series events, as well as no Home Tour, and no events organized by the BDO, which dissolved in 2020. The addition of qualifiers from the PDC Challenge and Development Tours replaced BDO representation.[3]
On 11 November, it was announced that Dimitri Van den Bergh had tested positive for COVID-19, ruling him out of the tournament. He was replaced by Chris Dobey, who was next on the list of qualifying criteria.[6]
The qualifiers were:
Qualifying Tournaments
Since the list of qualifiers from the main tournaments produced fewer than the required number of 16 players, the field was to be filled from the reserve lists. The first list consisted of the winners from 2021 European Tour events, with the winners ordered based on Order of Merit position at the cut-off date. However, Gerwyn Price, who had already qualified, won both European Tour events, and thus this list produced no new competitors.
PDC European Tour | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Tournament | Event | Position | Player | Qualifiers | |
2021 European Tour | |||||
Hungarian Darts Trophy | Winner | ![]() |
|||
Gibraltar Darts Trophy | Winner | ![]() | |||
Note: Players in italics had already qualified for the tournament. |
Since there were still fewer than 16 qualifiers after European Tour champions were included, the players with the most 2021 Players Championship titles were added. Order of Merit position served as a tiebreaker.
PDC Pro Tour | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Tournament | Event | Position | Player | Qualifiers | |
2021 PDC Pro Tour | |||||
Players Championship 1 | Winner | ![]() |
![]() ![]() ![]() | ||
Players Championship 2 | Winner | ![]() | |||
Players Championship 3 | Winner | ![]() | |||
Players Championship 4 | Winner | ![]() | |||
Players Championship 5 | Winner | ![]() | |||
Players Championship 6 | Winner | ![]() | |||
Players Championship 7 | Winner | ![]() | |||
Players Championship 8 | Winner | ![]() | |||
Players Championship 9 | Winner | ![]() | |||
Players Championship 10 | Winner | ![]() | |||
Players Championship 11 | Winner | ![]() | |||
Players Championship 12 | Winner | ![]() | |||
Players Championship 13 | Winner | ![]() | |||
Players Championship 14 | Winner | ![]() | |||
Players Championship 15 | Winner | ![]() | |||
Players Championship 16 | Winner | ![]() | |||
Players Championship 17 | Winner | ![]() | |||
Players Championship 18 | Winner | ![]() | |||
Players Championship 19 | Winner | ![]() | |||
Players Championship 20 | Winner | ![]() | |||
Players Championship 21 | Winner | ![]() | |||
Players Championship 22 | Winner | ![]() | |||
Players Championship 23 | Winner | ![]() | |||
Players Championship 24 | Winner | ![]() | |||
Players Championship 25 | Winner | ![]() | |||
Players Championship 26 | Winner | ![]() | |||
Players Championship 27 | Winner | ![]() | |||
Players Championship 28 | Winner | ![]() | |||
Players Championship 29 | Winner | ![]() | |||
Players Championship 30 | Winner | ![]() | |||
Note: Players in italics had already qualified for the tournament. |
PDC Qualifying Event
A further eight places in the Grand Slam of Darts were filled by winners of a qualifying event on 5 November.
These are the qualifiers:
Mike De Decker
Gabriel Clemens
Stephen Bunting
Raymond van Barneveld
Martin Schindler
Ryan Joyce
Krzysztof Ratajski
Boris Krčmar
Additional qualifiers
The winners of these tournaments and tours also qualified for the tournament, in place of BDO/WDF representation.
Tournament | Year | Position | Player |
---|---|---|---|
PDC World Youth Championship | 2020 | Winner | ![]() |
Runner-up | ![]() | ||
PDC UK Challenge Tour | 2021 | Winner | ![]() |
PDC European Challenge Tour | 2021 | Winner | ![]() |
PDC UK Development Tour | 2021 | Winner | ![]() |
PDC European Development Tour | 2021 | Winner | ![]() |
PDC Women's Series | 2021 | Events 1–6 Winner | ![]() |
Events 7–12 Winner | ![]() |
Draw
The draw was made on 5 November, with the players split into 4 pools based on their current world ranking.[7]
Pools
One player from each non-seeded pool was drawn into a group with a seeded player. The players are listed with their world ranking at the time of the draw.[8]
Pool A | Pool B | Pool C | Pool D |
---|---|---|---|
(PDC Seeded Players) | (PDC Tournament Finalists & Qualifiers) | ||
|
|
|
|
- ^ Chris Dobey replaced Dimitri Van den Bergh, who was previously the Number 5 seed.
- ^ Rusty-Jake Rodriguez was not confirmed to qualify as the European Development Tour winner until after the group stage draw.
Group stage
All group matches are best of nine legs
After three games, the top two in each group qualify for the knock-out stage
NB: P = Played; W = Won; L = Lost; LF = Legs for; LA = Legs against; +/− = Plus/minus record, in relation to legs; Pts = Points; Status = Qualified to knockout stage
Group A
13 November
14 November
15 November
|
Group B
13 November
14 November
15 November
|
Group C
13 November
14 November
15 November
|
Group D
13 November
14 November
15 November
|
Group E
13 November
14 November
16 November
|
Group F
13 November
14 November
16 November
|
Group G
13 November
14 November
16 November
|
Group H
13 November
14 November
16 November
|
Knockout stage
Second round (best of 19 legs) 17–18 November | Quarter-finals (best of 31 legs) 19–20 November | Semi-finals (best of 31 legs) 21 November | Final (best of 31 legs) 21 November | ||||||||||||||||
A1 | ![]() | 10 | |||||||||||||||||
B2 | ![]() | 8 | |||||||||||||||||
A1 | ![]() | 16 | |||||||||||||||||
B1 | ![]() | 12 | |||||||||||||||||
B1 | ![]() | 10 | |||||||||||||||||
A2 | ![]() | 2 | |||||||||||||||||
A1 | ![]() | 16 | |||||||||||||||||
C1 | ![]() | 9 | |||||||||||||||||
C1 | ![]() | 10 | |||||||||||||||||
D2 | ![]() | 2 | |||||||||||||||||
C1 | ![]() | 16 | |||||||||||||||||
C2 | ![]() | 14 | |||||||||||||||||
D1 | ![]() | 4 | |||||||||||||||||
C2 | ![]() | 10 | |||||||||||||||||
A1 | ![]() | 16 | |||||||||||||||||
E1 | ![]() | 8 | |||||||||||||||||
E1 | ![]() | 10 | |||||||||||||||||
F2 | ![]() | 9 | |||||||||||||||||
E1 | ![]() | 16 | |||||||||||||||||
E2 | ![]() | 13 | |||||||||||||||||
F1 | ![]() | 5 | |||||||||||||||||
E2 | ![]() | 10 | |||||||||||||||||
E1 | ![]() | 16 | |||||||||||||||||
H1 | ![]() | 12 | |||||||||||||||||
G1 | ![]() | 10 | |||||||||||||||||
H2 | ![]() | 8 | |||||||||||||||||
G1 | ![]() | 13 | |||||||||||||||||
H1 | ![]() | 16 | |||||||||||||||||
H1 | ![]() | 10 | |||||||||||||||||
G2 | ![]() | 5 |
References
- ^ Phillips, Josh (24 November 2020). "History-maker De Sousa defeats Wade in BoyleSports Grand Slam final". PDC. Archived from the original on 24 November 2020. Retrieved 24 November 2020.
- ^ Allen, Dave (21 November 2021). "Peerless Price completes Cazoo Grand Slam of Darts treble". PDC. Retrieved 21 November 2021.
- ^ a b Allen, Dave (18 August 2021). "2021 Cazoo Grand Slam of Darts qualification criteria confirmed". PDC. Archived from the original on 18 August 2021. Retrieved 18 August 2021.
- ^ a b "Fallon Sherrock and Michael Van Gerwen set new record averages". PDC. 14 November 2021. Archived from the original on 15 November 2021. Retrieved 15 November 2021.
- ^ "PDC Order of Merit Rules". PDC. Archived from the original on 29 October 2017. Retrieved 15 January 2019.
- ^ Allen, Dave (11 November 2021). "Van den Bergh replaced by Dobey at Cazoo Grand Slam of Darts". PDC. Archived from the original on 11 November 2021. Retrieved 11 November 2021.
- ^ Allen, Dave. "Wright faces Sherrock - Cazoo Grand Slam of Darts Draw confirmed". PDC. Archived from the original on 5 November 2021. Retrieved 5 November 2021.
- ^ "PDC Order of Merit". PDPA. Archived from the original on 5 November 2021. Retrieved 5 November 2021.