Michael van Gerwen is out of the Grand Slam of Darts after suffering a shock defeat on a night full of upsets in Wolverhampton.
The Dutchman lost 5-4 to English darts star Ryan Joyce on Tuesday night, with the latter progressing out of Group G at the expense of his opponent.
As a result, ‘Mighty Mike’ has been knocked out in the group stage of the tournament for the first time in 14 years.
The last time this happened was in the 2010 edition of the competition.
Van Gerwen has won the tournament three times, with the treble of victories coming in consecutive years – 2015, 2016 and 2017.
The Dutchman had twice fought back from two legs down.
Going into the final leg, he seemed to be in control.
But after failing to take out 112, Joyce only needed 18 to pull off the victory.
“I’m happy to win obviously,” said Joyce after the win. “That didn’t feel like a battle, it felt like we were both struggling a little bit.
“I don’t know, it’s a funny old game, I think both players were nervous at certain times.
“I felt like sometimes I could hit the treble 20, and sometimes I couldn’t.
“So I’m just delighted go get through, it was a big surprise because I really didn’t play very well.”
Elsewhere, other seeded player and 2022 winner Michael Smith was thumped 5-0 by Mike De Decker.
Smith did not muster one attempt at a double throughout the game.
Every single previous winner of the tournament has now been knocked out.
De Decker will face Luke Littler in the next round.
The 17-year-old earlier saw off Lourence Ilagan 5-3.
Ilagan failed to capitalise on Littler almost letting his 2-0 lead slip, but the teenager got the job done in the end in Wolverhampton.
Littler came agonisingly close to hitting a nine darter to round off a dream group stage on his Grand Slam debut.
Meanwhile, cult hero Stephen Bunting secured his place in the knockout stage with a 5-2 win over Northern Ireland’s Josh Rock.
