The opening night of the new PDC season sees the first round of The Masters being played when the 16 players outside the top eight in the world battle it out for the right to take on a seeded opponent in the next round on Saturday.
That means we have to wait another day to see the new world champion Gerwyn Price, Michael van Gerwen and Peter Wright among others, but there are still plenty of star names on show on what should be a wonderful Friday evening of arrers.
First Four Matches
The action kicks off with a couple of veterans who had just lost a little bit of ground in the world rankings facing each other when Ian White meets Mensur Suljovic in a clash where both men will be looking to set up a positive 2021. All eyes will then be on the Premier League champion Glen Durrant to see whether he has found his best form in the month since he toppled out of the World Championship at the hands of Dirk van Duijvenbode. Durrant faces a Mervyn King who looks to be on the up again.
Dimitri Van den Bergh is the second highest ranked player on show on the opening evening and the World Matchplay champion will look to set up a clash with James Wade on Saturday when he goes up against the Geordie player Chris Dobey. We head to the interval with a couple of familiar foes meeting as Krzysztof Ratajsski takes on Simon Whitlock in a repeat of their World Championship battle which the Polish ace surprisingly won 4-0.
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Later Four Matches
Michael Smith is the highest ranked player on show on the first day of action in the new season. He gets the second half of the evening session underway when he takes on the last man into the field in Adrian Lewis, in a match you feel is pretty big for the fortunes of both men throughout the year. When they are done the twice TV major winner Daryl Gurney will look to build on an impressive World Championship when he takes on the dangerous Jeffrey de Zwaan who is due a big run in another TV tournament.
Four men who all finished off 2020 with a flourish conclude the action on the opening night as the Grand Slam champion Jose de Sousa takes on the World Cup winner Jonny Clayton in what is possibly the pick of the matches on Friday. The action rounds off with Joe Cullen looking to build on that amazing display against Michael van Gerwen at Alexandra Palace when he takes on the man who made the last four there in Stephen Bunting.
Betting
I’m not a fan of betting on these best of 11s on the box as regular readers will know and I’m also not really a fan of going knees deep in the first night of action in a new season either. That means I’m going to keep bets on the first night down to a minimum and while Mervyn King tempts me at the prices, the fact I’m on him outright leans me towards the opening match of the evening where Ian White takes on Mensur Suljovic.
I like the latter to come out on top. Suljovic has a very good record against White with 11 wins in their 14 meetings and I’m not surprised by that. White likes a rhythm to his work and isn’t likely to get one of them here. White also prefers being away from the limelight whereas Suljovic has shown he is much more comfortable on the stage. Suljovic had a quiet 2020, far too quiet by his standards, and will want to make up for that this year. He is probably the more reliable double hitter of the two which may well be significant so at 11/10 I like him to come through this one.
Tips
WON – Back M.Suljovic to beat I.White for a 3/10 stake at 2.10 with BetVictor
Back him here:
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