World number one Smith and Welsh star Price will take centre stage on Monday night, with Smith up against Newcastle’s Callan Rydz, while Price faces 2021 semi-finalist Danny Noppert. It is hard enough to win a ProTour, never mind a TV tournament, but I believe it is going to come one day, and hopefully it comes this week.

Set play can create drama out of nowhere and so it proved again, but after surviving the scares of a deciding set, he produced an exhibition of high scoring and ruthless doubling - at both ends of legs - to beat Chris Dobey in a highly-entertaining contest.The draw for the fifth round was made live on the Main Stage at the conclusion of Friday night's action, with Van Gerwen pitted against in-form Australian Damon Heta. Hopefully, the Ferret will come out on the winning side again. I want to lift every trophy that’s going, and I will try my hardest to do that.” Dimitri Van den Bergh made his major breakthough in Milton Keynes last year when he lifted the Phil Taylor Trophy (Image: Lawrence Lustig/PDC)

Aspinall misses two darts to force a deciding set having been 4-0 down before Van Gerwen finally, finally gets the job done on double 10 to end a remarkable final that could have finished an hour ago! It might seem mildly disturbing to hear a darts player talking about his “brand” but there is nothing contrived about Van Gerwen’s blistering talent or explosive celebrations. “It’s just me,” he says with a final shrug. “The Bulldog has gone. It’s 100% Mighty Mike.”South Africa's Devon Petersen, Australia's Damon Heta, World Grand Prix runner-up Dirk van Duijvenbode, Ross Smith and two-time world youth champion Luke Humphries are also in line for their first taste of the iconic Winter Gardens when play gets going - with all the action live on Sky Sports. MVG takes five darts to get away and fails to record a 100+ score in his next four visits as Aspinall breaks with a 17-darter to force a deciding leg in this set. He now has the darts! Aspinall added: "I have shown again what I am capable of. I wasn’t anywhere near my best, but I dug deep and whatever was thrown at me, I managed to find a way to win." Taylor remains his fiercest rival. “Definitely,” Van Gerwen says. “He’s always my main rival. But we both have a long way to go before this next final. They say the most difficult one to win is the first world title and I really hope it is because I’d like to become a three-time world champion in the next four or five years. But the aim now is to win the first round on Thursday, go to the horse racing at Ascot on Friday and home to Holland on Saturday.” I love this event - I owe a lot to the Grand Slam, and hopefully it keeps being kind to me," said Smith, who is bidding to become the fourth player to retain the coveted title.