A large run of televised darts tournaments between now and the end of the year gets going on Tuesday when the World Grand Prix begins, with 32 players looking to thrive in the double start format and land a major title.
Michael van Gerwen did that in Dublin last year but with the Covid-19 restrictions in place he will defend his crown behind closed doors inside the Ricoh Arena in Coventry with 31 players gunning for his title.
Recent Winners
2019 – Michael van Gerwen
2018 – Michael van Gerwen
2017 – Daryl Gurney
2016 – Michael van Gerwen
2015 – Robert Thornton
2014 – Michael van Gerwen
2013 – Phil Taylor
2012 – Michael van Gerwen
2011 – Phil Taylor
2010 – James Wade
The Format
This is the one tournament of the year where the format is completely different. In every leg players have to hit a double to start scoring and then hit another to finish the leg. We are at set play in this tournament as well. The first round is a bunfight over the best-of-three sets while the second round and quarter finals move up to the best-of-five. It is the best-of-seven for the semi-finals and then the champion will be decided over the best-of-nine sets in the final on the Monday. Each set throughout the tournament is the best-of-five legs and the deciding set will be settled in the fifth leg rather than a tiebreak.
Top Half
Michael van Gerwen is the number one seed as the defending champion and the highest ranked player in the sport but he has shown a vulnerability throughout 2020 which will keep the other three seeded players in the top half of the draw interested as a result. Those three seeds are Michael Smith, Rob Cross and the only other former champion of this event who is in this half in the form of James Wade.
There are plenty of good quality unseeded players in this part of the draw. They are probably headed by the man who landed the German Darts Championship recently in Davon Petersen. Krzysztof Ratajski, Jose De Sousa and Adrian Lewis are all dangerous while Chris Dobey was a semi-finalist in this last year. The World Matchplay champion Dimitri Van den Bergh and top class acts Mensur Suljovic and Gary Anderson are also in this half of the draw as is the former world finalist Danny Noppert.
Bottom Half
The world champion Peter Wright will be the highest ranked player in the bottom half of the draw as he seeks to win this tournament for the first time. A man who has already achieved that feat is one of the other three seeded players up against him in Daryl Gurney. Gerwyn Price is no stranger to winning big tournaments and he is also seeded in this half while Nathan Aspinall completes the quarter of top eight players in the draw.
The man beaten in the final last year is one of the unseeded players in this bottom half. That is Dave Chisnall and the man he beat in the last four to reach that final is also here in Glen Durrant. Jonny Clayton has been in good touch for a while and Ian White is one of the better players in the world outside of the top eight. Gabriel Clemens is an underrated player in this half while Stephen Bunting retains the ability to be dangerous on this stage.
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Outright Betting
Although Michael van Gerwen is nothing like as unbeatable as he has been in recent years but there are a bunch of top quality players in the top half of the draw so I’ll head to the bottom half for my outright bets. My main one comes in the form of Glen Durrant who was a semi-finalist on debut last year and having fully established himself now can go better than that. He is one of the best clutch double hitters in the game so this double start format shouldn’t hold any issues for him and we saw that last year. We know going by his Premier League exploits that he fears nobody and can beat them all. Duzza never gives a bad performance so even though the format is a bit of a lottery in terms of distance we know he’ll be giving it his all. This could well be the week he lands a maiden PDC TV title.
I wasn’t going to have any other bets for the tournament but I can’t resist a tiny play on Gabriel Clemens at 125/1. I’m not a massive fan of backing debutants in this event but Clemens is pretty good at holding his nerve and has a technique that should see him get off and running in legs well. The German raises his game when he is on the big stages and if he can see off Nathan Aspinall in his opening match his part of the draw could open up very quickly. He is solid enough to take advantage of that if it does at an absolutely monster price.
Quarter Betting
I’ll have a dabble on a couple at big prices in the quarter betting with the top quarter player having to be Devon Petersen. He might have to come up against Michael van Gerwen in the second round but there is no guarantee of that as MVG is not certain to get past Krzysztof Ratajski in the opening round. Even if the South African does end up playing the world number one I don’t think he will be bothered by that as he is playing so well at the minute that he will think he can beat anyone, especially over this format. This is a really tough quarter with the likes of James Wade, Jose De Sousa, Mervyn King, Adrian Lewis and Chris Dobey in it but nobody is playing better than Petersen right now and that can count for something here.
In the second quarter I like Danny Noppert, a player who made the semi-final of the German Darts Championship recently which backed up a very good Autumn Series where he regularly made the last 16 and beyond in those five tournaments. He looks in decent touch and actually although there appears to be some big names in this quarter there aren’t many of them in decent form and better still from a Noppert point of view there are a bunch of players such as Michael Smith, Mensur Suljovic, Rob Cross and Ryan Searle who aren’t convincing on the doubles. This is another loaded quarter so don’t be surprised if it opens up and with the form he is in if it does open up the Dutchman could be the one to take advantage.
Tips
Back G.Durrant to win World Grand Prix (e/w) for a 1.5/10 stake at 19.00 with Betfair (1/2 1-2)
Back him here:
Back G.Clemens to win World Grand Prix (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 126.00 with Coral (1/2 1-2)
Back him here:
Back D.Petersen to win 1st Quarter for a 1/10 stake at 8.00 with Boylesports
Back him here:
Back D.Noppert to win 2nd Quarter for a 1/10 stake at 11.00 with Sky Bet
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