It was another dramatic night in Wolverhampton, but Michael Smith has made it through to the knock-out stages at the Grand Slam.
But he was forced to face a nail-biting wait before qualification was finally confirmed. The Unicorn man did his bit as he won a thrilling last leg decider to beat BDO No.1 Mark McGeeney.....but he was then left sweating on the result of the last match in the group between Mensur Suljovic and James Wilson.
Quite simply, a Suljovic win and Smith was through, but a Wilson win 5-3 or 5-4 and the St. Helens star would have faced a dramatic 9 dart shoot-out!
And when Wilson led 4-3 and was throwing for the match, that looked the likely scenario. But Suljovic landed a 112 finish to level and then won the decider to leave Smith breathing easy!
And that all means that Smith finished runner-up in Group G and in the last 16, he will play the Group H winner....a certain Gary Anderson!
Anderson made it three wins out of three with a comprehensive 5-2 victory over Simon Whitlock. The Unicorn superstar hit top form again with a near 105 average, 5/7 on the doubles, a 130 finish on the bull, five 180s and he won it with a 13 darter.
Smith was involved in another titanic tussle. He went 3-0 up on McGeeney and then hit a 10 dart leg to move 4-1 in front. But back came McGeeney with finishes of 117, 124 on the bull and 99.
The Unicorn player produced a superb final leg and win it in spectacular fashion with an 87 bull finish. He averaged 105 and only missed one dart at double in the match.
We look forward to that all Unicorn affair as Anderson faces Smith on Wednesday night at the Wolverhampton Civic Hall for a place in the Grand Slam quarter-finals.
By STUART PYKE
Photo courtesy Lawrence Lustig / PDC
