The second day of the Grand Slam of Darts is a day where the tournament begins to sort itself out as the winners from Monday meet as well as the losers battling against each other. That means the stakes are pretty high inside the Ricoh Arena in Coventry.
We saw the usual mix of high quality darts and big name players cruising to victory along with the shocks and surprises that this short format brings. There is no reason to think we won’t see much more of the game on Tuesday.
Afternoon Session
It is the losers from Monday who are up first in this session which means that we start off with Ricky Evans taking on the BDO world champion Wayne Warren. Both men were beaten heavily on Monday so whoever loses here will be out of the competition. Luke Humphries will look to get his campaign back on track in match two when he meets Justin Pipe before Ryan Searle faces Adam Gawlas. We get to the halfway stage of the afternoon with a quality looking clash between Glen Durrant and Damon Heta.
The second part of the afternoon sees the winners from the first day back in action and that starts off with Gary Anderson going up against Simon Whitlock. James Wade then takes on Jermaine Wattimena before Rob Cross looks to confirm his return to form when he takes on Dave Chisnall. The final match of the afternoon sees the man who broke the tournament average record on Monday back on stage when the World Matchplay champion Dimitri Van den Bergh takes on Nathan Aspinall.
Evening Session
The same pattern from the afternoon comes into the evening so the action begins with the losers from Monday taking each other on where the first game sees Krzysztof Ratajski facing Lisa Ashton before Joe Cullen goes up against Adam Hunt. All eyes will then be on the third match of the night where we get to see the women’s world champion Mikuru Suzuki back in action a day after she missed four match darts to beat Gerwyn Price. She faces Ryan Joyce before the PDC world champion Peter Wright takes on Ian White.
The winners half of the evening starts off with Devon Petersen taking on the World Grand Prix finalist Dirk van Duijvenbode before the world number one Michael van Gerwen is back on show when he takes on the classy German star Gabriel Clemens. The final two matches of the day see the World Cup winning partners battling it out when Gerwyn Price faces Jonny Clayton before Michael Smith meets Jose de Sousa.
Special Offer
Bet on the Grand Slam of Darts with the sponsors Boylesports and get DOUBLE WINNINGS on ALL MARKETS if both players hit a treble with their first dart! Click the image below to bet. All customers! 18+ T&Cs apply. Gamble Aware.
Betting
I’ll go with three bets over the course of the day with the first of them coming in the final match of the afternoon as Nathan Aspinall is taken to beat Dimitri Van den Bergh. The Belgian was quite brilliant on Monday when he averaged in excess of 114 but I’ve watched enough sport to know that backing up those sorts of performances is never easy and the drop off is inevitable. That will be music to the ears of Aspinall who wasn’t really tested by a rusty Wayne Warren on Monday but who should come on for the run out and the comfortable win. I get the feeling Aspinall has been chomping at the bit to show his class once again and here is the ideal opportunity. I expect him to make the most of his chance.
In the evening session we can get a more than acceptable price on Devon Petersen to hit more than 2.5 180s in his match against Dirk van Duijvenbode which would have every chance of landing. I say that because Petersen has become one of the biggest 180 hitters in the game at present. After smashing in a raft of them at the European Championship recently he then ploughed in six more in his first match win over Ian White on Monday and he isn’t likely to stop now. These two men play at a decent pace so there should be no rhythm issues so Petersen, who is averaging comfortably more than a 180 per winning leg on TV at the minute can hit three more here.
The final match of the night sees Michael Smith meeting Jose de Sousa for the third time in a little more than a week after they met twice in the Winter Series last week. Smith won both those matches and I think he’s a more than fair bet at 4/5 to complete the hat trick here. .Smith has a lot of big stage experience and while de Sousa is a class act and is going to be around for a while, he is still a little too guilty of missing key doubles in the TV stages especially against the bigger and better players. Smith seems to enjoy the Grand Slam format. The only time he failed to come out of the group was on debut back in 2013. Since then his record stands up well and he can take another step towards qualifying with a win here.
Tips
Back N.Aspinall to beat D.Van den Bergh for a 3/10 stake at 1.80 with Betfair
Back D.Petersen – Over 2.5 180s for a 3/10 stake at 1.91 with Betfair
Back them here:
WON – Back M.Smith to beat J.de Sousa for a 3/10 stake at 1.80 with 888sport
Back him here:
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2020
