As we move into Day Five at the 2026 World Grand Prix, it is now time to start thinking about who could take home the title, could it be a darts underdog replicating the run of Mike De Decker, or someone like Price or Humphries adding yet another major title to their ongoing tally, or a return to winning ways for James Wade?
This article is going to go through how long it’s been since each player has been in the position they’re faced with this weekend.
Nathan Aspinall
Having reached the Final of the Players Championship Finals at the end of 2025, this is surprisingly a first major Quarter-Final since , having fallen early in the Matchplay, UK Open, Masters and World Championships, as well as a second-round defeat in Amsterdam two weeks ago.
MORE ELITE DARTS COVERAGE: Check Out Our Devoted PDC Area
This will be a nineteenth ranking major Quarter-Final for “The Asp”, having made his first at the 2019 World Championships, just three months before claiming the UK Open crown. He has a winning record at this stage of 10/18. Taking all majors into account, he has a total of 14 major Semi-Finals in his career, winning exactly half of them, including his only one at the Grand Prix back in 2022.
The big stumbling block for Aspinall has always been the final hurdle. Having won his first major at the first attempt at the 2019 UK Open, he has only one of his next six major finals, that coming at the 2023 World Matchplay. Every final he has made has been at a different major, with the remaining five being the 2020 Premier League, 2022 Grand Prix, 2022 Grand Slam, 2023 World Series Finals, and of course the Players Championship Finals last year.
Ryan Joyce
The opponent of Aspinall in the last 8 – one of the best double 16 hitters this sport has ever seen. Ryan Joyce loves the Grand Prix, and he is proving that once again this week. He will take on Aspinall in his seventh major Quarter-Final in the PDC, and a second at the Grand Prix in the last three years. His first came at the 2019 World Championship, followed by a three-year hiatus, and then the remaining five came within two years of each other. This will be his first major Quarter-Final since the European Championship last October.
Joyce has often struggling once reaching this stage however, winning only two of his previous six appearances in the last 8, those coming at the 2023 Players Championship Finals, and this event in 2024. Both of those appearances resulted in a loss, falling short to Luke Humphries on both occasions. He will be looking for a first major final of his career this weekend.
Gerwyn Price
Moving onto the Welsh pair, they are both very familiar with the position they find themselves in this week in Leicester. Tonight will be a 41st major ranking Quarter-Final for Gerwyn Price, and a fourth consecutive one this year, not to mention the fourteen he has played at non ranking majors too.
He has won his last six major Quarter-Finals in the PDC, with his last defeat coming at the Grand Prix last year, missing match darts to beat Luke Littler. He has won 34 of his 54 Quarter-Finals at this level, losing 20, and has then gone on to win 22 of his 38 Semi-Finals.
DARTS PLAYER MERCHANDISE AND COLLECTABLES AT OUR DARTSWORLD STORE
He has had no shortage of major final experience of late too, reaching that stage at both of the last two events – the Matchplay and the World Series of Darts Finals. However, his last major title dates back to the 2023 World Cup, over three years ago. In terms of ranking majors, the wait goes all the way back to the 2021 Grand Slam, almost five years ago. This could potentially be a very big weekend for the Welsh number one.
Jonny Clayton
The other half of the Welsh duo to take to the stage tonight, the “Ferrett” will be taking part in his fifth Quarter-Final of the season, having only failed to reach that stage at the World Masters and the Matchplay in 2026. Of the 33 major Quarter-Finals he has played in his career, he has a positive record of 21 wins, winning almost two in every three matches at this stage.
Throwing the Premier League into the mix from the Semi-Final stage, he has a slightly worse record, winning 11 of his 25 matches. But eleven major finals is still impressive, especially with ten of them coming from 2020-2025, with the other coming at the 2017 Players Championship Finals.
Of these 11 finals, the Welshman has claimed the title on six occasions, two coming at World Cups in 2020 and 2023, plus four singles titles in his brilliant 2021 season, the Masters, Grand Prix, Premier League and World Series Finals. However, He hasn’t won a single ranking major since that year, having lost his last two finals at the 2023 Matchplay and the 2025 World Masters.
Luke Humphries
Moving into the bottom half of the draw, there are some more very heavy hitters, especially in recent times for “Cool Hand”. Having won his first major title at this event in 2023, he has since gone on to claim nine more in the following three years, including the biggest ones of the lot, the Worlds, Matchplay, Premier League and Grand Slam. This will be a fourth major Quarter-Final of the year for Humphries, and he has gone on to reach the final in each of the previous three.
His first Quarter-Final on the major stage came at the 2019 World Championships, and he has reached that stage a total of 25 times since in ranking majors, 30 times including the non-rankings. He has only lost ten Quarter-Finals, giving him an impressive 66.7% winning record. He has also only lost four of his 23 major Semi-Finals, an incredible win rate of over 82.6%.
Despite this, Humphries hasn’t won a ranking major since the 2025 World Masters, over 18 months ago, and it is a streak he will be desperate to end this weekend, having lost his last four finals in that category – the 2025 Grand Prix, European Championships and Grand Slam, plus the 2026 World Masters.
Niels Zonneveld
After the glowing record of the previous three players, Zonneveld comes into this line up as a massive underdog. Tonight, will be a just a second Quarter-Final of any kind at major level for “Triple Z”, and he is doing so on his debut at the Grand Prix, having already taken out Gary Anderson and Josh Rock.
His previous appearance at this stage came at the World Series of Darts Finals in 2021, nearly five years ago, when he lost to Krzysztof Ratajski by ten legs to six. He has however reached four big stage Quarter-Finals on the European Tour, three of them coming consecutively at the start of 2026. He has won three of these four matches, so has experience of reaching big stage Semi-Finals.
However, the Dutchman has only reached one final in his senior career within the PDC, coming in Players Championship 22 last year, where he fell short against Sebastian Bialecki in Hildesheim.
Gian van Veen
Despite provisionally being World Number 2 by the end of the week, it is fair to say that Gian van Veen is yet to really take off when it comes to winning titles, having won just two so far in his career. Saying this, one of those titles was the European Championship in 2025, demonstrating that he has what it takes to go all the way at this level.
The Dutch #1 has taken part in 11 major Quarter-Finals so far in his career, four of them coming in 2026, and has been on the winning side on eight occasions, a brilliant return rate. He hasn’t lost a major Quarter-Final since the World Matchplay 14 months ago! He has however only won three of his eight Semi-Finals, with those coming at the European Championships he prevailed in last year, as well as the World Championships at the end of last season and the World Cup in June.
Including Premier League nights, the Dutchman has played in ten finals in this calendar year of 2026 (including the World Championships, as the final was on Jan 3rd), and hasn’t won any of them. He will be desperate to put this run of defeats to an end this weekend.
James Wade
Finally, the “Machine”. James Wade has reached an absolutely staggering 74 major Quarter-Finals in his time in the PDC, with the first one coming over 20 years ago at the 2006 World Matchplay. He has an impressive win rate of 63.5% over the years, winning 47 of them. Adding the events such as the Premier League, Champions League and Championship League into the mix (where there wasn’t any Quarter-Finals), he has racked up a total of 57 major Semi-Finals.
Despite this, he has reached four Quarter-Finals in 2026 and only come out the winner on one occasion, at the UK Open. He will be desperate to fix that this weekend.
He just about has a positive record of 50.9% in major Semi-Finals, before falling to 37.9% at the final hurdle, largely due to the constant dominance of players like Taylor, van Gerwen and Littler. Despite having 11 major titles to his name, Wade is in the biggest gap without one since he claimed his first at the Matchplay in 2007. His last major title came at the 2021 UK Open, over five years ago. It would be incredible, if the 43 year old were to claim the Grand Prix crown on Sunday.
Images: PDC
