Over a decade after his sole event win on the European Tour, ‘The Flying Scotsman’ Gary Anderson has won the 2024 European Darts Grand Prix in (place), Germany, defeating ‘Smudger’ Ross Smith 8-6 in Sunday night’s engrossing final.
2023 and 2024 have seen Anderson, a former two time World Champion and the third most decorated player in PDC history, enjoy a return to form after a brief career decline. Excellent on the ProTour, but when it came to the televised events and majors, Anderson would either be unable to replicate his form from the floor events, or would face an absurdly excellent performance from his opponent (a recent example being his UK Open loss to Martin Lukeman)
But at ET114, over a decade since Anderson beat Justin Pipe in the final of ET14, the former World Cup winner finally put his name to a European tour title once again.
Starting as a seeded player, Anderson produced a ton plus average against Cristian Perez, before a mouthwatering clash with Gerwyn Price saw Anderson freeze the Iceman in his tricks once again.
Anderson looked beat against Josh Rock, being forced to survive match darts against the young Ulsterman, but a sensational bullseye finish in the 10th leg levelled things before Anderson snatched the 11th leg to progress to the semi finals.
Another former World Champion awaited in Rob Cross, who was imperious in his defeat of Luke Humphries in the previous round. A true seesaw affair, Voltage was eventually put down 7-5 as Anderson made the final in Germany.
Michael Van Gerwen, consistently the foil to Anderson during their respective prime years in the 2010s, was not to be his opponent however. The Dutchman bust his score twice and it was instead the tournament’s great match dart survivor Ross Smith who stood between Anderson and glory.
The former European champion traded legs with Anderson, but a crucial mistake in the closing legs of the match allowed Anderson to break once again at 7-6, giving the Scotsman the darts to win the match and ending a European Tour drought of 100 events without a final win for the 53-year-old.
Pushing the top 20 in the PDC order of merit once again, a big Summer once again awaits Gary Anderson. With him and Peter Wright all but officially confirmed to be Scotland’s World Cup duo, is Gary Anderson now a favourite for the World Matchplay? Especially having become only the second player, after Luke Littler, to win multiple ranking titles post the World Championship.
GARY ANDERSON IS THE CHAMPION IN SINDELFINGEN!! 🏆
— PDC Darts (@OfficialPDC) April 21, 2024
Over ten years since his last title on the European Tour, Gary Anderson is back winning as he lifts the 2024 https://t.co/Nw9IKxvF5P European Darts Grand Prix title!
He beats Ross Smith 8-6 in a brilliant final 👏 pic.twitter.com/5j6wo7rkTC
By Jaspar Shepherdson
(@jasparshepmedia on X/Twitter and Instagram)
Image Credit: Smian03 on Wikipedia
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