This is it! Christmas officially begins on Friday night when the PDC World Darts Championship begins inside Alexandra Palace in London as 16 days of the very best arrers you’ll find anywhere in the world gets underway.
As is tradition, the defending champion starts his tournament on the opening night, which means we do not have to wait long to see Michael van Gerwen back on the Ally Pally stage. He is in the only second round match on the night, with three first round games before then.
Jelle Klaasen vs Kevin Burness
The opening match of the tournament sees the former Lakeside version of the World Championship winner, Jelle Klaasen, taking on Kevin Burness, who has made it through to this tournament for the second straight year.
This has not been a good campaign for the Dutchman, but the beauty of this tournament, and indeed the pressure of it, is that with the cash on offer a three or four match burst can completely shape the future. Burness came through the tour card qualifier to make it here but with most of the top 64 in the rankings already in the event he won’t have beaten a great deal. To his credit, Burness beat Paul Nicholson here last year but other than the qualifier he has barely won a match on tour since July. I can’t be getting involved in the Irishman but at the same time I’m in no rush to back Klaasen. I’ll sit this one out.
Kim Huybrechts vs Geert Nentjes
The second first round match of the night sees Kim Huybrechts looking to get his career back on track when he goes up against the Dutch youngster Geert Nentjes, who is here for the second year in succession, and will be out to do better than his 3-0 loss to Nathan Aspinall last year.
Huybrechts is not only in the same stable as Klaasen before him, but he is also in the same state too. His 2019 has been a poor one but if he can make it through to the last 16 or so here that will all be forgotten and he can look to the future and get his ranking back in order again. Nentjes has gone well at development level but at senior level his results are indifferent at best. This one should be all about Huybrechts. If he plays anything close to his best, as I think he will, he should cover a 1.5 set handicap.
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Luke Humphries vs Devon Petersen
The pick of the matches on the opening night of the tournament is the first round clash between two perfectly talented players in Luke Humphries, quarter finalist last year, and Devon Petersen, who always raises his game for the big stage.
Humphries is full of talent and should have good memories from last year. If we ignore the age debate, he has dominated the development tour this year and has begun to show signs of his potential on the European stage too. My only concern over him is that he won’t have been a favourite on the big stage very often and that brings a different pressure with it. Petersen has nothing to lose here and his scoring power is more than good enough to keep Humphries honest. I wouldn’t be surprised if there is an upset here but the prices are about right so I’m not going to push the boat out on the first night.
Michael van Gerwen vs Jelle Klaasen/Kevin Burness
The last match of the opening night of action in the tournament sees Michael van Gerwen beginning his title defence when he takes on the winner of the opening game in the first of the second round games of the competition.
It is always hard to bet on these sorts of matches for a couple of reasons. I say this because firstly we don’t know who MVG will be playing and secondly because whoever he does go up against will have had a match on the stage. While he might be settled or acclimatised he could be jaded at the same time. There is too much guesswork. Either way you would expect MVG to win and do so comfortably but there’s no need to be betting on guessing games.
Tips
Back K.Huybrechts (-1.5 sets) to beat G.Nentjes for a 4/10 stake at 1.91 with Betway
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