The first round of the World Cup of Darts will be played out across two sessions in Salzburg on what should be a very good day of action in a tournament which is gaining in popularity and importance with every staging that it has.
History tells us that the best of nine leg doubles format opens up the possibility for plenty of shocks and the bigger nations will be looking to avoid that on Friday and get themselves into the next stage of the tournament where the singles format begins and they can relax a little.
Afternoon Session
Two of the lesser nations get the tournament up and running on Friday afternoon when Lithuania meet Gibraltar for a place in the second round. We then get to see one of the form men on the circuit right now in the second game when Portugal, headlined by Jose de Sousa, go up against Hungary before New Zealand and Denmark look to get their campaigns up and running. The first seeded side in play takes us to the halfway mark in the afternoon as Northern Ireland take on Canada in potentially the pick of the afternoon matches.
Former finalists Belgium start the second part of the afternoon when they take on a Czech Republic side that shouldn’t be underestimated before the host nation Austria, led by Mensur Suljovic, take on a USA team who will be quite comfortable with the doubles format with a lot of it played in that part of the world. England then get their quest underway in the penultimate match of the afternoon when they take on the Philippines before the afternoon concludes with Italy going up against Spain.
Evening Session
It is a pretty tasty evening session on Friday it has to be said. It begins with what bookmakers think could be the closest of the matches in this round when Sweden plays Greece before the defending champions Scotland get their title defence up and running when they go up against a dangerous Japan outfit. Two of the best players in the world at present collide in the third match of the evening as Krzysztof Ratajski and partner take on Devon Petersen and his teammate when Poland take on South Africa. We go to the halfway point in the evening with the beaten finalists of last year, Republic of Ireland, taking on an Australia team who are the dark horses for many.
Tournament favourites Wales begin their campaign in the first match in the second half of the evening session. They will be expected to cruise past Russia although we’ve seen in the online leagues that Boris Koltsov can bring some decent darts to the party. Germany are being touted as potential winners and they take on Finland before the four-time champions Netherlands, with their new pairing of Michael van Gerwen and Danny Noppert combining, take on Brazil. A busy opening day of the tournament ends with Hong Kong meeting Latvia.
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Betting
There are two bets which catch my eye on the opening day of the tournament and both come along in the evening session where a dangerous Japan side look overpriced to take care of the defending champions Scotland. These two nations met in the semi-final last season but it was a very different Scotland side who were in action. Then it was Gary Anderson and Peter Wright and here it is John Henderson and Robert Thornton and while they are no mugs I don’t think they are significantly stronger than Japan. To be fair it isn’t the same Japanese side either. Seigo Asada is joined by Yuki Yamada but we’ve seen Yamada win matches at the World Championship so I’m not convinced that weakens them too much, particularly in this doubles format. I look at this Scotland team and there looks like the potential for a lot of missed doubles so if Japan can play a clean game they can win this one.
Although Republic of Ireland made it to the final last season I’m not convinced they get out of the first round here because they come up against a very strong looking Australia team who don’t appear to have many weaknesses. The positive for Ireland is that they have played together last year and can build on that partnership and the memories they created but Simon Whitlock is an old hand in this event and Damon Heta is a rising star from that part of the world and has already claimed a tour title this year. If Australia play to the level they can I don’t expect them to lose to what I call a one paced Ireland side.
Tips
Back Japan to beat Scotland for a 3/10 stake at 2.38 with Bet365
WON – Back Australia to beat Republic of Ireland for a 3/10 stake at 1.80 with Betfair
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