Gian van Veen's World Grand Prix journey came to a brutal halt in the quarter-finals, where James Wade delivered a masterclass to send the Dutchman packing with a 3-0 defeat. 'The Giant' managed just one leg in the entire match, averaging over 15 points less than his opponent, as his hopes of a second major title were dashed in Leicester.
Despite the heavy loss, the tournament marked a breakthrough for van Veen, who finally won his first match on the Grand Prix stage in his third appearance. Victories over Dirk van Duijvenbode and Ryan Searle had set up the showdown with Wade, but 'The Machine' proved too good, halting van Veen's charge.
Speaking candidly after the match, van Veen didn't hold back in his assessment. "A quick debrief of my game yesterday — don't really want to, to be honest. It was terrible. It was not a great game from my part," he said. "James played really well. He put me under pressure in every leg. He started the legs very well, his stops were good."
The double-in, double-out format places extra emphasis on the outer ring, but it was van Veen's scoring that let him down. "Even my starting double was pretty good, but scoring, I was just not at the races yesterday. And then against a player like James, he's not very forgiving in that kind of sense of the game, and that's only good, of course. That's where you want to be," he admitted. "I just wasn't there yesterday, which is a shame, of course, because I want to do well in these tournaments, and it really hurt me as well yesterday, losing very, very heavily, 9-1 in legs. I only got one leg, got dart at a double. That's a shame, but, you know, it is what it is."
Reflecting further, van Veen revealed he had already begun analysing the defeat. "I've talked to Ronnie about it this morning on the way here to the airport, analysing the game, seeing what went wrong, and I think we have a good, fair judgement of what went wrong. It's on me to work on that right now."
With a busy schedule ahead, the 24-year-old is wasting no time in setting his sights on the next challenge. "I'm going home for a couple of days off before Basel next week, going to hit the practice board, of course, to put the wrongs right for next week, and then it's all about building momentum again."
Van Veen will feature in the final two European Tour events of 2026, starting with the Swiss Darts Trophy this week, followed by a return to home soil for the Dutch Darts Championship before defending his title at the European Championship. He is determined to avoid a repeat of his Wade performance. "These games just happen. It's part of life. It's not what you want, of course, but you can't, especially with the calendar and the pressure that we're under, you can't be 100% at your best every time. That's just a hard reality, and that's what showed yesterday, which is, as I said, very, very shameful, but it is what it is."
