The PDC World Darts Championship continues on Tuesday with another two sessions of play which sees the stars of tungsten tossing toeing the oche inside the Alexandra Palace in London looking to make further progress in the tournament.
The afternoon session sees a former world champion on show, a couple of tournament winners and two of the better players in the game all battling out for spots in the last 16 on Wednesday, as we head towards the business end of the competition.
James Wade vs Stephen Bunting
The opening match of the afternoon sees a man who amazingly hasn’t won this title in his career in James Wade taking on a seasoned campaigner who is a world champion having won the BDO version of the tournament in the past in Stephen Bunting.
Wade went into this competition in good form and was the thinking of many to at least make the final in his half of the draw and with Peter Wright out of his quarter his chances of that happening have strengthened significantly. Wade was pretty effective in the opening round but he’ll need to be as good here because Bunting played very well against Andy Boulton in the opening game especially when the crunch moments came along and he’ll take a lot of belief from that. I expect Wade to win here but as I’m on him outright I don’t need to go in again.
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Daryl Gurney vs Chris Dobey
The second match of the afternoon could end up being the best of them as two players who are looking to find their best form in this tournament meet when Daryl Gurney takes on Chris Dobey for the right to face Vincent van der Voort in the last 16 on Wednesday.
Gurney went into this tournament off the back of a very indifferent spell by his high standards but it was pleasing to hear him say that the penny has dropped and he has been practicing a lot more in the run up to this event. That showed in the previous round where he was very impressive and if there is any natural improvement off that he is going to be very hard to beat here. Dobey also entered the competition in terrible form and when he trailed Jeff Smith 2-0 in the second round he looked like making a tame exit. He did very well to comeback from that but Smith never had the scoring power to trouble him and was always relying on his errors to win. Gurney won’t be like that. He has the scoring power to go with Dobey if not outscore him and as long as there are no mares on the doubles I’ve got to think the better player wins this. Gurney leads their head to head 4-2 with his four wins all coming on a stage. I expect him to win this too.
Jason Lowe vs Devon Petersen
The final match of the afternoon should have included Michael Smith but Jason Lowe put paid to those chances and it is he who will face Devon Petersen for the right to take on Gary Anderson in the last 16 of the tournament on Wednesday.
Lowe played beautifully against Smith and that shouldn’t be forgotten. It is a fair comment to highlight how abysmal Smith was from the outset of that match and he didn’t hide how he was feeling but Lowe deserves credit for sticking to his guns, scoring powerfully and finishing well. To beat Smith however he is playing is a decent effort. To win 9-3 in legs is a brilliant one. Petersen was made to work harder by Steve Lennon in the previous round but his missed doubles along the way was a reason for that.
When you go back to the first round and remember all the missed doubles Lowe produced and match them with the ones Petersen missed in the second round you’ve got to think this one could turn into a bit of a lottery. One thing which will not be a lottery is the 180 hitting. Lowe hit seven of them against Smith and Petersen is one of the heaviest hitters of them in the game right now so I’m a little surprised the 180 line is only 12.5 here. If we assume we’ll get six sets in this match then we only need one per player per set with one on top here which feels very gettable. Seven sets and this can’t fail to be covered but even five sets should be long enough for the over to land.
Tips
WON – Back D.Gurney to beat C.Dobey for a 3/10 stake at 1.80 with Coral
Back him here:
Back J.Lowe vs D.Petersen – Over 12.5 180s for a 3/10 stake at 1.80 with Betway
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