Ryan Joyce is brimming with confidence following a stunning 2-1 victory over Michael van Gerwen at the World Grand Prix, and the doubles specialist has set his ambitions higher than ever before. After falling behind, Joyce slowly crept back against the six-time champion as his Dutch opponent continued to struggle on the outer ring. Joyce pinned 67% of his darts on the outer ring to finish a leg compared to the woeful 19% of van Gerwen and came out a worthy winner.
"Well, to be fair to Michael, I think if you go back five years, 10 years, he would have destroyed us," Joyce commented in his press conference with DartsNews.com after the victory. "But he wasn't at his best today. To be fair, it wasn't a great game of darts, but I don't know, it's one of them where you thank your lucky stars and say, 'OK, I'll take that.' I've got a bit of luck, so I'll try and do better the next round."
Despite the win, Joyce was candid about his own performance. "Well, I've played Michael for the last decade. I've played him when he's been at his best, I've played him when he hasn't played well, and I've beaten him in both scenarios. So I always have confidence in my own ability that I can play well," he said. "But I didn't play well tonight, and that made me feel like I was lucky that Michael wasn't at his best either, and I managed to scrape a win. I would have liked to have beaten him when we both had a 100 average, for example. That would have been better. But it's just another game. You can only play the game against whoever's in front of you. It doesn't matter if it's Michael van Gerwen or anybody else. I don't think about it in terms of who I'm playing. I just try and play my game and not worry about what my opponent's doing or how good my opponent is."
Round one is always a nervy affair for the players, with the double-in, double-out format and best-of-three sets scoring system causing havoc. "I hope so. Yeah, you're right about the format. You feel like you can make one mistake and that could be it. Everybody that qualifies for the Grand Prix, they're all fantastic players, and yeah, it's really tough. One mistake can cost you the game, really," Joyce added. He also reflected on the experience factor: "It's just like anything you do in life. Forget about darts or sport in general, just anything in life. Once you've got lots of experience and years of experience doing something, it just feels much more comfortable, doesn't it? It's like your first day at high school. It's nerve-wracking, it's horrible, but after five years at high school, you don't feel any nerves at all, do you? I would describe playing professional darts like that. It's really tough playing players with the profile of Michael van Gerwen when you first play them on the stage, but after you've played them 10, 15, 20 times, it's just like a game of darts. You're just doing your job."
Joyce will take on Danny Noppert in the second round of the 2026 World Grand Prix. The Englishman has reached the semi-final of a major tournament on two occasions, once at the World Grand Prix in 2024 and the Players Championship Finals in 2023. That elusive major title could be in range this week with the field blown open not just by his win over van Gerwen, but with the reigning champion Luke Littler departing. "I think so, yeah. I've said that over the years and I still say it now. I think this is my best chance to win a major, definitely, especially with players like Luke Humphries and Luke Littler, who are unbelievable superstars with natural ability," Joyce said. "I just can't match them, and I never have and probably never will. But in this format, I've got an outside chance. I feel like in a match-play format, for example, if I was playing Luke Littler in the final, I'd probably think, 'I haven't got no chance here.' But in this format, if I bump into him in the quarter-final, I feel like I will have a chance."