The opening event of the 2021 PDC calendar concludes on Sunday when the remainder of The Masters is played out from the quarter finals through to a champion being crowned inside the Marshall Arena in Milton Keynes.
The quarter finals take place in the afternoon session on Sunday while the semi-finals and the final will be saved for a juicy evening session. As ever in this tournament time restrictions will deny us the chance to preview the evening but we can get stuck into the quarter finals.
Mervyn King vs Nathan Aspinall
The opening quarter final of the afternoon sees two men who give their all meeting on the big stage when the recent Players Championship Finals runner up Mervyn King takes on the Premier League finalist Nathan Aspinall for a spot in another TV final.
King has really come on in the last few months and despite being comfortably the lowest ranked of the two men he is actually the favourite for this match. That is probably reflected on him averaging more than a ton against two former world champions in this tournament so far and that Aspinall only averaged 92 in his win over Mensur Suljovic. Aspinall hasn’t really been on it for the last couple of months so these two look to be trending in opposite directions. I think King wins this but followers of our outright preview will already be on him at 6/1 as we backed him for the quarter at that price. There is no need to go in on him again.
Gerwyn Price vs Adrian Lewis
The second match of the afternoon sees the new world champion and world number one Gerwyn Price looking to move to within two wins of backing up his Ally Pally success with another here when he takes on the lower ranked player in the field in Adrian Lewis.
I wondered whether the attention and the expectation ploughed onto Price now that he is world champion would be a tag he struggled to carry but there was none of that as he thrashed Joe Cullen in the last 16 on Saturday. Lewis has had two very good wins himself this weekend though with Michael Smith and Gary Anderson both seen off with impressive performances. There has been a fair bit to like about Lewis so far but he’s right up against it here you would think. Price looks like he is on it so you would expect him to win. There is enough quality in Lewis to keep him honest though and to sway me from getting involved in handicaps.
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Peter Wright vs Dave Chisnall
The only quarter final in the competition that has two players from the top eight in the world in it is the third one of the afternoon which sees Peter Wright continuing his title defence when he takes on a Dave Chisnall who has been pretty impressive in recent months.
Wright looked good in the previous round and spoke afterwards about how he has been practicing relentlessly since the World Championship. That showed in his win over Simon Whitlock where he scored heavily and in the main finished well. You could say the same about Chisnall too and the fact that he held his nerve when things got tight against Daryl Gurney showed the measure of the strides he has been making in recent times. This one could go either way and although I thought about a bet on the 180s the bookmakers are on a par with me and the lines and prices are nothing to write home about. I’ll leave this one alone.
Jonny Clayton vs James Wade
The last match of the quarter finals sees the former champion James Wade looking to take a step towards a second The Masters title when he faces the man who took care of Michael van Gerwen in the previous round in Jonny Clayton.
You get the impression that Clayton has really stepped up a level since he was part of the winning World Cup side and the only thing that has denied him since is losing a couple of close matches. With that in mind, it is a positive that he has closed out a couple of deciding leg victories in this tournament so far, against two very competent players in Jose de Sousa and MVG. Wade had a month or so where he was in great form around the time of the Grand Slam of Darts but he hasn’t shown a lot since losing in the final of that, so whether that took more out of him than we thought might be something to consider.
Wade eased past Chris Dobey in the previous round but he was helped by a lot of missed doubles from his opponent and with that in mind I think he might be vulnerable here. Clayton is carrying the confidence of that World Cup win and I would imagine the success that he has seen his teammate in that tournament in Price go on to have will have inspired him to deliver the goods. I think he’s a bit of value here in a match he isn’t much worse than 50:50 to win.
Tips
WON – Back J.Clayton to beat J.Wade for a 3/10 stake at 2.25 with Betfair
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