With the 2025 Mr Vegas Grand Slam of Darts just one week away, Stephen Bunting will be looking to add his name to the list of champions.
After a mixed October, Bunting will need to rediscover some of his early season form if he expects to reach the latter rounds of this tournament.
Stats Via: Flashscore
Despite winning 65% of his matches in October, it feels like all the defeats have been damaging for the 40-year-old’s momentum.
The month started off with three wins in the Players Championships, before a disappointing 6-5 loss to world number 62 Ryan Meikle.
It was the last eight where the man from St Helens would fall at the World Grand Prix after a 3-1 defeat to Dutchman Danny Noppert in a closely contested matchup.
Another couple of good runs followed in Players Championships before being comprehensively beaten by both the 20th best player in the world, Nathan Aspinall and the world’s second best player, Luke Littler, in the semi-finals.
The European Tour brought another unexpected loss in the round of 16 after losing to Ryan Joyce 6-4.
The final week of October brought three losses out of four including shock defeats to Richard Veenstra who is ranked 48th in the world, and Owen Bates who is ranked 80th in the world.
Stats Via: Flashscore
One of the main takeaways from Bunting’s losses this month, is the ranking of each player.
Out of the eight defeats “The Bullet” has suffered, only two of then were to players ranked within the top 10 which underlines the lack of consistency he is currently showing.
Losses to the 62nd best player in the world and the 80th best player in the world clearly raise questions to whether the 40-year-old has a chance of winning the Grand Slam of Darts next week.
As someone who is ranked fourth in the world, won three televised titles and seven non-televised titles, you would expect him to be up there with a chance of taking home the £150,000 winners prize fund.
With both Littler and Luke Humphries always turning up at the big tournaments, it’ll be tough to look past the two best players in the world.
Can “The Bullet” regain his form from earlier in the year, or will this tournament be yet another struggle for Bunting?
Featured image: Eckendeformator, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
