The quarter finals of the World Matchplay get underway inside the Winter Gardens in Blackpool on Thursday evening when the bottom half of the draw gets played down to the last four in the second biggest tournament of the year.
We were due to get Gary Anderson against Mensur Suljovic and Peter Wright taking on James Wade but a couple of giant killers have spoiled that plan. We are still left with a couple of decent looking contests.
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Daryl Gurney vs Mensur Suljovic
The conqueror of Gary Anderson, Daryl Gurney, takes on Mensur Suljovic in the opening quarter final. Generally matches between these two are quite tight. Gurney leads their head to head 5-4 but they are 2-2 for the four meetings in 2017, the last three of which have all gone to a deciding leg.
All eyes will be on Gurney in this match to see if he can follow up his emotional win over Anderson. It is never easy to follow up a big performance with another and he is unlikely to get the rhythm he likes here so this will be a big test of his credentials. Suljovic is finishing wonderfully well so Gurney will need to deny the Austrian too many chances.
I’m already on Gurney at 9/1 in this match having backed him for his quarter so I will sit tight and hope the Northern Irishman delivers on that in what could be a tight and tense first game.
Peter Wright vs Darren Webster
The second match of the night sees Peter Wright, who is now the favourite to make the final in this half of the draw, taking on a man in Darren Webster who has the potential to be dangerous albeit is still relatively inexperienced at this stage of major tournaments.
Wright was awful in his first match but much more like the man we know in the second and while Webster has done well to come this far he hasn’t averaged 97 in the tournament yet. At this level 100 average is the minimum requirement and it will be interesting to see if the Norfolk man can find that.
I fancy the longer this goes the relentless standard of Wright will see him pull away. Webster will be competitive for large parts but he does have flat spots which can find him out here. Webster’s finishing so far has been 13/32 and 11/26 and with chances coming at more of a premium if that doesn’t improve he won’t go too far into double figures. Wright on the handicap for me.
Tips
Back P.Wright (-5.5 legs) to beat D.Webster for a 4/10 stake at 2.10 with BetVictor
Back him here:
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