Tennis is often the closest sporting analogy for the development of darts. Therefor its no surprise talk of a Grand Slam of titles dominates tennis regularly and as often in recent times as back in the era of wooden rackets or amateur players – Novak Djokovic fell at the final hurdle in 2021.
It’s simple enough: Australian, French and US Open’s punctuated by Wimbledon.
Do it at any point and it’s a ‘Career Slam’. Do it in the same season/year and it’s referred to as a Calendar or Season Slam.
These are tweaked to make claims for different achievements. Steffi Graff added an Olympic Gold medal to the full set in 1988 and thus has a unique ‘Golden Slam’ and a Serena Slam* is winning all 4 events in row and holding all four titles but not within a single season.
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In truth a true Grand Slam has never been properly defined for darts, so we shall do so here.
Let’s keep it really simple: the majors in tennis are the four biggest events designed to show a mastery of the different surfaces and conditions across the global tour. They are all ‘Open’ almost identical in qualification and procedures are spaced throughout a season.
So for PDC darts it would be what used to be known as the ‘Big 5’: UK Open, World Matchplay, World Grand Prix, Grand Slam and World Championships.
This would have meant that Luke Littler achieved his Grand Slam in 2025/26 a decade after MVG’s 2016/17.
A New Darts Grand Slam Set?
However based on the same criteria there has been a new major for the last two years, The Winmau World Masters. Following the events upgrading to a 32 player main draw, fully ranked with varied and accessible qualifying routes for the majority of PDC affiliated players it can no loger be overlooked. Surely, darts now have a ‘Super Six’.
If young master Littler can complete a repeat of his ‘Big 5’ Slam in 2025 he will be the first to capture this updated Grand Slam – The Nuclear Slam in his honor perhaps?
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Now should someone equal this in the future we may, with all the subtleties created by having a season that nominally crosses two calendar years, need to move that title to winning 11 ‘majors in a row’ and all six of our newly designated Grand Slam events in a single season!
Let’s hope that such a remarkable effort is as regular as Haleys comet!
——ENDS——
*This should be a NavratiSlam as Martina did it in 1983 / 1984 – when it was known as the Grand Slam – due to the Australian Open being at the end of the year.
Images: PDC
Graphics and Magazine Images: Darts World Ltd
