The first tournament of the new PDC season concludes on Sunday when a new champion of The Masters is crowned in Milton Keynes, on a busy day of action which promises to be competitive and of high quality.
As ever we have the quarter finals in the afternoon session before the conclusion of the event in the evening. Time restrictions will deny us the chance to preview the evening session but we’ll get stuck into the last eight encounters.
Adrian Lewis vs Michael Smith
We kick things off with a battle of two decent scorers who will look to take advantage of the early demise of Michael van Gerwen in this tournament when Adrian Lewis plays Michael Smith. The winner of this was due to play the Dutchman in the semi-final so the opportunity for them has opened right up.
Lewis was pretty ordinary in the first round and was grateful for Rob Cross showing up in terrible form but it was the exact opposite for Smith who was quite brilliant in taking care of Mensur Suljovic and if both have the same form with them here then Smith is going to come through. That is what I’m expecting to happen here with Lewis rarely at the heights that Smith can hit these days but the St Helens man still misses too many doubles for me to trust him so I’ll sit this one out.
Jonny Clayton vs Nathan Aspinall
The man who disposed of Michael van Gerwen in the opening round of the tournament will look to take advantage of that when he plays his quarter final as Jonny Clayton meets Nathan Aspinall for a place in the last four of the competition.
All eyes will be on Clayton here to see how he backs things up but we’ve seen it plenty of times in the past that the emotional highs of beating a great are hard to back up in the next game and as a result I expect Aspinall to come through here. He is the better player of the two anyway for my money and he doesn’t have any emotional baggage to overcome, which is very much to his advantage. Aspinall is relentlessly consistent and I have my doubts whether Clayton can stay hot on his doubles twice in a row. With all that in mind I’ll back the youngster to win and to cover a 1.5 leg start.
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Gerwyn Price vs Gary Anderson
Much will be made of the history between the two men in the third match of the afternoon as Gerwyn Price meets Gary Anderson in a repeat of that fiery and controversial Grand Slam final of a couple of years ago, but actually we should get a decent game from the pair.
There wasn’t a lot between these two in the previous round and when you add in the determination not to lose to the other one we shouldn’t expect there to be much between them here either. This should be competitive and of a decent quality so I like over 9.5 180s to land between two men who are no stranger to the 60 and who will want to flex their skills hard against the other. They both hit four 180s in the first round. One more each here sees this line covered.
Peter Wright vs Dave Chisnall
The world champion Peter Wright continued where he left off at Alexandra Palace in the first round and he’ll be out to make sure that remains the case on Sunday when he concludes the afternoon session with a battle against Dave Chisnall.
In theory we should be in for an epic contest here against two heavy scorers who are no strangers to going toe to toe with each other. Chisnall looked in grand scoring order in the first round while Wright looked as good as ever. I expect Wright to come through here but you have to respect the scoring power of Chisnall so nothing is guaranteed. If I was betting on this match I would take over 10.5 180s but that line is just one too high for comfort for me so I’ll sit this one out.
Tips
WON – Back N.Aspinall (-1.5 legs) to beat J.Clayton for a 4/10 stake at 1.75 with Boylesports
Back him here:
WON – Back G.Price vs G.Anderson – Over 9.5 180s for a 4/10 stake at 2.10 with William Hill
Back it here:
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