The World Grand Prix begins on Tuesday night with all the first round matches in the top half of the draw taking place inside the bio-secure behind closed doors setting at the Ricoh Arena in Coventry and 16 players start their journey towards what they hope will be a televised title.
There are plenty of stars names on show on Tuesday evening with the likes of Michael van Gerwen, Michael Smith, Rob Cross and James Wade all in action in the crazy double start format where shocks are expected with the format being the best of three sets.
First Four Matches
The opening match of the night sees Chris Dobey starting out on his quest to emulate his run to the semi-final of the tournament from last season. He takes on an Adrian Lewis for whom these events are big as his ranking continues to flounder in the teens. Once then are done we will see the form horse Danny Noppert taking on ‘Heavy Metal’ Ryan Searle in a clash which both men will think they can come out on top in. The third match of the night sees Mensur Suljovic, who should be at home in this double start format, taking on the debutant Dirk van Duijvenbode before we hit the halfway point with the German Darts Championship winner Devon Petersen in action. He goes up against the class of Jose De Sousa.
Later Four Matches
The last four matches on this opening evening all look of the highest quality with the former winner James Wade taking on a man who has been to the final of this competition in the past in Mervyn King. Two former world champions meet in match six of the evening when Rob Cross takes on Gary Anderson before the match of the night comes along in the penultimate game of the evening. That sees Michael van Gerwen beginning his title defence against the top class Polish player Krzysztof Ratajski in a contest that MVG will have his work cut out to come through. The final match of the night sees Michael Smith taking on the World Matchplay champion Dimitri Van den Bergh.
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Betting
Two outsiders jump off the page on the course of the night. The first one is a Mervyn King who only Peter Wright has a better doubling percentage of the 32 men in this field than this year. King is hitting 43.48% of his doubles this year and if he performs to that level here then James Wade is going to have a problem. Wade is renowned as a great double hitter but it is only really double 10 that he is reliable on these days and if he ends up starting on that he is going to lose ground to most in the field here. King has actually won five of the last six meetings between these two including the last three. Two meetings are of significance. The first was the most recent one which was in the German Darts Championship a couple of weekends ago when King won 6-2 and their battle before that was in this tournament last year when King won 3-1 in the second round. At 6/4 he looks significantly overpriced to me.
Another player who looks overpriced is Krzysztof Ratajski against Michael van Gerwen. To be fair to Ratajski he has flattered to deceive in this tournament in the past but he is a better player now and he is experienced enough on the big stage to cope with the format. The Pole is playing as well as anyone right now and over this format he is a serious challenger if he can get cracking on his doubles early doors. All the pressure is on van Gerwen here. We know he isn’t at his best and even the best can be found out in this sprint of a first round. Let us not forget that Phil Taylor was beaten by the likes of Adrian Gray and Andy Callaby in this round in the past. Ratajski was the worst draw for a seeded player to get and at 7/4 he’s value to show why here.
Tips
WON – Back M.King to beat J.Wade for a 3/10 stake at 2.50 with Boylesports
Back him here:
Back K.Ratajski to beat M.van Gerwen for a 3/10 stake at 2.75 with Betfair
Back him here:
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