The quarter finals of the World Matchplay get underway inside the Marshall Arena in Milton Keynes on Thursday night as the second biggest ranking event of the season continues behind closed doors and heads towards the business stage of the event.
If the exit of Michael van Gerwen didn’t open this draw up enough earlier in the week, the demise of the world champion Peter Wright on Wednesday evening certainly would have done and all four men in action on Thursday will be eyeing up a deep run now.
The Format
Much has changed in the world in recent times but the format of the World Matchplay hasn’t. The event begins with the first round over the best of 19 legs with the second round moving up to the best of 21 legs. The quarter finals take place over the best of 31 legs with the semi-finals the best of 33. The winner will then be determined on the second Sunday of the tournament in a best of 35 leg final. Each match in the tournament has to be won by two clear legs unless each player reach two beyond the scheduled winning number (12-12 in the first round, 13-13 in the second round etc). If that happens the next leg will be a deciding leg.
Day 5 Recap
We expected a very good night of darts on Wednesday and we certainly wasn’t left disappointed in that regard. The night begam with Vincent van der Voort powering past Daryl Gurney 11-5 before Dimitri Van den Bergh came out on the right side of a good old ding dong with Joe Cullen 11-9. The match of the night was always likely to be the one between Peter Wright and Glen Durrant and that is how it proved as Durrant won 11-8 before Adrian Lewis thrashed Danny Noppert 11-7 to round off the night.
Tuesday night was a terrible one for us from a betting point of view but we recovered much of the damage on Wednesday with two winners from two bets. There was never much between Dimitri Van den Bergh and Joe Cullen so the over 18.5 legs bet we had on that match rarely looked like losing. The other bet was for Adrian Lewis to beat Danny Noppert and that is exactly what happened so it was a perfect betting night for us.
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Krzysztof Ratajski vs Michael Smith
The opening quarter final sees the man who was beaten in the final of this competition 12 months ago in Michael Smith taking on a very dangerous Krzysztof Ratajski who is off in search of his first televised PDC title between now and Sunday.
There has been no better player in terms of tournament average than Krzysztof Ratajski so far. He is averaging over 100 for the tournament, is scoring well and has been pretty decent on the doubles as well. To be fair to Michael Smith he was very good in the opening round and he wasn’t terrible by any stretch in the second round although his finishing did leave a lot to be desired in this match. Bookmakers can’t split these but based on what we’ve seen so far you’d have to make Ratajski the favourite. I do but I don’t need to back him because I’m already on him at 9/2 for the quarter which becomes a winner if he wins here. That will do me for a betting interest here.
Simon Whitlock vs Gary Anderson
The second quarter final sees two veterans of the PDC circuit battling it out to make the semi-final of another televised tournament when Simon Whitlock looks to build on his fine win over Michael van Gerwen when he takes on Gary Anderson.
These two men have both played well in this tournament. I think Whitlock has been better overall than Anderson, but there were certainly signs in the previous round that Anderson is beginning to motor. Both these men scored very well in the second round and you would think that the winner will be the man who pins their doubles the best. I suspect that will be Anderson but he wasn’t as strong on them against Wade as I would like.
That makes me think the better bet here could come in one of the 180s markets and the market I like is for Whitlock’s 180s. He has had two very convincing wins and has hit five and six 180s in them and when you consider we are likely to get close to the 30 legs he has played in the tournament in this one, he should be able to cover 8.5 180s. Whitlock’s first dart has been very good so far this week and when that is landing his power scoring tends to be very good. I fancy we’ll see nine 180s from Whitlock here.
Tips
Back S.Whitlock – Over 8.5 180s for a 3/10 stake at 2.25 with Bet365
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