2024 Saturday Grand Slam Darts Preview

It was another profitable night for James Punt on Friday. Mickey Mansell and our 175/1 outright hope Martin Lukeman both won and landed us a nice two timer in the process. Tonight we will find out who will advance to the second semi-final, check out James’ 2024 Saturday Grand Slam Darts match previews and tips below.

Jermaine Wattimena vs. Luke Littler

The bookmakers have pretty much written Littler’s name on the trophy. He is the 1.75 favourite for the tournament, and a 1.15 shot to beat Wattimena.

Littler needed the help of the PDC Whistler to get past Mike de Decker, and no doubt Wattimena will get the same treatment. The referee was passive in terms of even just asking the crowd to show both players the respect they deserve.

Littler sells more tickets than De Decker, or Wattimena, so the pissed up football fans can put off Littler’s opponents with impunity. One day the boot will be on the other foot, but not today.

Wattimena No Mug

Wattimena should not be taken lightly. He is in the form of his life, very confident and has nothing to lose. If we look at some of his recent form, it is very impressive.

He was a quarter finalist at the Czech Darts Open, beating an in-form Chris Dobey 6-0 in round two, averaging 107. He then went to Dortmund and was runner up in the European Championship after beating Wright, Wade, Humphries and Noppert, before imploding in the final.

Wattimena took it all as a positive and came here full of beans. He thrashed De Decker 5-2 in the opening group match, averaging 104, swatted Michael Smith aside with a 5-1 win and showed some backbone to beat Suljovic and Van den Bergh in deciding legs.

He does have more bad performances than Littler, but his A-game can give the youngster plenty to think about. His tournament average is 97.24 and he has won seven of his last ten matches.

Big Average For Littler

Luke Littler has also won seven of his last ten matches, his tournament average is a whopping 106.27, and eight of his last ten matches have seen big ton plus averages. He hasn’t had a proper off day since he lost 4-6 to Boris Krcmar in PC28 a month ago. He was experimenting with new darts at that time and playing poorly.

Since going back to his old darts, he has lost two matches, one to Luke Humphries and the other to Andrew Gilding. He probably should have lost to De Decker having been 4-8 down, but his good play, and the crowd, got him over the line in a deciding leg. He is not unbeatable, just very hard to beat.

Their H2H record is 2-0 to Littler, both crushing victories. Both were Euro Tour matches and Littler won them 6-1 and 6-2. Wattimena averaged over a ton in both and was thrashed. The pace of play suits both players, but you do not want to make things comfortable for Littler. Sadly, Wattimena does not have a slow game in his armoury.

Longer Format

Will a longer format make things any different for Wattimena? He has won four of his last five longer format matches but that is not a lot to go on. His biggest asset is that he is very confident. If he can stick in, he might be able to frustrate Littler, but there have been few signs of any flaws in Littler’s game this week. His checkouts are big, his doubling strong, his scoring is off the charts. He is hitting 180s at a rate of 0.53 per leg. As I say, no flaws.

But I will not write Wattimena off. He is going to play a big part in this game. Confidence is the greatest asset a player can have, and Wattimena is very confident.

His performance in the final of the European Championship was terrible, but that came at the end of a very long day. He played three long format matches that day, 35 legs just to reach the final, and the tank was empty in the final. He doesn’t have that problem today.

Checkouts

His game is in great shape, his checkouts have been even better than Littler’s, his doubling has been excellent, but he hasn’t shown the same kind of power scoring as Littler. Wattimena is only hitting 180’s at 0.22 per leg. It is a part of his game that is below average and not just this week. If he wants to beat Littler, he will need to be smashing the treble 20, and he is not a big 180 man.

This has been a great tournament for the outsiders. We have Martin Lukeman playing Mickey Mansell for a place in the final tomorrow. There is not a single seed left in the tournament and only two of the big beasts of the game still in it. Littler and Anderson. I expect Littler to win this but I give Wattimena a better chance than the bookies. Hopefully he can make a game of it and tire out the whistlers.

2024 Saturday Grand Slam Darts Tip: 1 point Jermaine Wattimena to win +5.5 legs @ 2.05 with Boylesports

2024 Saturday Grand Slam Darts Tip: 1 point Wattimena to have the highest checkout @ 2.75 with Betfair

Gary Anderson vs. Gian van Veen

While the casual darts fan has been drooling over Luke Littler’s game, the keen students of the game have been watching Gian van Veen with awe. His tournament average is 108.89 and he has smashed up the likes of Josh Rock, Stephen Bunting and Rayn Joyce, dropping just five legs against the three of them.

Only Wessel Nijman gave him a game, but he lost 4-5, despite averaging 111.10. Van Veen has been the best player in the tournament.

Gary Anderson really wants to win this title. It is his favourite tournament, and he has never won it, losing in two finals. The clock is ticking and he will not get too many more chances. He has played in nine previous quarter finals and won six, but the last win was back in 2018. He lost last year’s quarter final match 14-16 to Luke Humphries.

Anderson has a tournament average of 103.52 but so far, only Bunting has thrown much back at him. He beat Bunting 10-6 (Van Veen beat Bunting 5-1, and Bunting averaged 104 in that match).

These two have met twice before and Anderson won both, 6-5 and 6-2. Both matches were on the floor and in 2023. Van Veen was poor in the 2-6 defeat, but he averaged 101 in the 5-6 loss.

Can Gian Maintain Form?

Clearly, if Van Veen can keep this run of form going, he wins. That is the big question, can he keep it up? Van Veen has won a load of titles at junior level, but he is yet to win any sort of title at senior level. He is attempting ‘to do an Edhouse’ and break his duck with a major. That is hard but there is no doubting that he has the game.

Anderson is the 1.70 favourite, with Van Veen 2.20. The best player in the tournament is the outsider. We have backed Van Veen to win the tournament and it was never going to be easy in this half of the draw, but he has done everything right so far. Anderson will be his toughest opponent since he faced Nijman, and he beat Nijman.

For Anderson to win, he needs Van Veen to drop his form, which of course he could do, but I cannot ignore what he has done. The biggest match in his senior career was the semi-final of last year’s European Championship, which he lost 9-11 to James Wade. He didn’t play well in that match, but still kept it close. He had beaten MVG in the quarter final earlier that day, and he may have had a bit of mental let down. I suspect he will be better prepared tonight.

2024 Saturday Grand Slam Darts Tip: 1 point Gian van Veen to win @ 2.20 generally available

2024 Saturday Grand Slam Darts Tip: 1 point over 27.5 legs @ 1.83 with Ladbrokes

Van Veen has been smashing the treble 20 segment so far this week, hitting 180s at 0.53 per leg, the same as Littler. Anderson has not been too shabby with 0.34 per leg. If we get a close match, we could see a lot of maximums. Van Veen is the 2.50 outsider to hit the most 180s and I will take that, rather than 1.95 for over 19.5 180s in the match.

2024 Saturday Grand Slam Darts Tip: 1 point Gian van Veen to hit the most 180s @ 2.50 with Betfair, BET365, Betvictor

-JamesPunt