There will be a lot of attention on the evening session in the PDC World Darts Championship inside Alexandra Palace on Tuesday, as the second of the female players takes to the stage to attempt to make history on another competitive night of arrers.
We saw the women’s world champion Mikuru Suzuki almost upset the applecart earlier in the week, and now it is the turn of Fallon Sherrock to take centre stage, on an interesting night where some European stars could shine.
Ritchie Edhouse vs Boris Koltsov
The opening game of the night sees a couple of men who have impressed on the Challenge Tour circuit doing battle when Ritchie Edhouse goes up against the Russian number one Boris Koltsov for the right to face James Wade in the second round.
This will be the debut for Edhouse in this tournament. We’ve already seen a bunch of players who have turned up as favourite this week with little to gain and everything to lose and we can file Edhouse in that draw as well. He is favourite here, probably rightly as the better player but he is very much in unknown territory. Koltsov is a much improved player since we first saw him on the big stage and if he can find some consistency for prolonged periods in this match this could be his to win. My gut says Edhouse should be opposed but with better bets elsewhere I’m happy to watch this one.
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Jose de Sousa vs Damon Heta
The pick of the matches on the fifth night of action in this tournament sees the Portuguese star Jose de Sousa taking on the Australian player Damon Heta in a clash in which the winner will fancy their chances of a nice run even allowing for the fact they will run into Glen Durrant in the next round.
We might not have seen it on the big stage or on our TV screens just yet but de Sousa is going to be a big star in this game. He has won two titles on the floor in the last three months and made the final of another so when his floor game hits the stage they all need to watch out. In fairness to Heta, he has already shown his credentials on the stage when he took care of James Wade, Gary Anderson, Simon Whitlock and Rob Cross to win the Brisbane Masters earlier in the campaign. You get the feeling this will be a competitive match.
I still think de Sousa will come out on top but he is way too short at 2/5. One thing that isn’t short though is the even money on the Portuguese player hitting more than 4.5 maximums. He is a 180 machine on the floor and has shown glimpses of that in his few stage matches too. It is hard to think there isn’t going to be four sets in this so we only need one maximum on average with one on top somewhere and if there is five sets we’re looking at one a set. That is well within the compass of a talented scorer.
Ted Evetts vs Fallon Sherrock
The match in which the eyes of the world will be on is the last of the first round games on the evening when the impressive youngster Ted Evetts takes on one of the best women in the world in Fallon Sherrock for the right to meet Mensur Suljovic in the next round.
Evetts is on a hiding to nothing here. If he wins everyone will have expected him to do exactly that and if he loses he becomes part of history for the wrong reason. When the male ace might be benefitted though is all of a sudden there is a lot more attention and focus on Sherrock after the display of Suzuki at the weekend. That is a pressure she probably didn’t need and it will be interesting to see how she copes with it. Sherrock will win legs in this match but whether she pieces them together like Suzuki did will be the interesting thing. When the event started over 3.5 sets was my pick here but I’m just concerned there is a little too much heat on Sherrock now. I might be overthinking it but there are other bets on the card I like so I’ll sit this out but be a very interested viewer.
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Jeffrey de Zwaan vs Darin Young
The last match of the night was all set up to be potential the final game of the career of Raymond van Barneveld against the man whom he mentors but Darin Young got in the way of that, and it is he who will take on Jeffrey de Zwaan instead.
Young saw off Barneveld in the first round but he’ll need a significant improvement if his run in this event is going to be extended because he failed to average 90 and never truly impressed in any part of his game. It might be that the focus on the match got to him and this one won’t have that but he’ll need that to be the case. If it isn’t the case and that is his level now then this match is all about de Zwaan. His scoring power will be way too much for Young so if the ’Black Cobra’ pins his doubles to a decent rate he should come through a shade cosily.
The odds suggest that will be the case but what they don’t suggest is that de Zwaan will hit a lot of 180s. I think he will though. He has hit five or more 180s in all three of his first round matches here in the past and is more comfortable on the big stage now and as a result an even heavier scorer. His 180 line is 4.5 and assuming we get 12 or more legs I expect that to be comfortably covered.
Tips
Back J.de Sousa – Over 4.5 180s for a 4/10 stake at 2.00 with Bet365
WON – Back J.de Zwaan – Over 4.5 180s for a 4/10 stake at 1.83 with Coral
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