It is ‘Moving Day’ at the UK Open on Saturday when the fifth and sixth rounds take place inside the Marshall Arena in Milton Keynes as the 32 remaining men will be whittled down to eight over two sessions of play.
The last 32 will form the schedule for the afternoon session and then the evening session will consist of the last 16 matches. Regulars will know that time restrictions will deny us the chance to cover the last 16, although if any bets do arise they will be posted on our Twitter feed. We will preview the last 32 here though.
Main Stage
As with Friday evening, the action on the main stage will be of a decent quality and it gets underway with the former world champion Rob Cross going up against James Wade. When they are done the current world champion will grace the main stage once again when Gerwyn Price meets one of the fastest players in the game in Ricky Evans. It is the third match which promises to be the pick of the games as Michael Smith takes on the Grand Slam winner Jose de Sousa before the defending champion Michael van Gerwen meets Mensur Suljovic.
Stage Two
There is some decent looking action on the schedule for stage two on Saturday afternoon and we start with the former world finalist Simon Whitlock who will go up against Darius Labanauskas in a repeat of a cracking battle they had at the World Championship. Possibly the most competitive match of the last 32 comes next when Daryl Gurney goes up against the German number one Gabriel Clemens. Two good youngsters meet in the penultimate match of the afternoon when Chris Dobey takes on John Brown before two form horses collide when Jonny Clayton faces Dirk van Duijvenbode.
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Stage Three
The action on stage three also starts with a crackerjack of a contest as Luke Humphries goes up against Ryan Searle in a battle between two players who have the scoring power to go very deep in this tournament. When they are done the man who made a huge breakthrough in his career at the Super Series last week, Callan Rydz, steps onto the stage to take on the tall Dutch ace Martijn Kleermaker. The pace slows a little after that as the improving Scottish player Alan Soutar meets Ron Meulenkamp before Luke Woodhouse closes out the show when he takes on Brendan Dolan.
Stage Four
Some big names have been saved for stage four in the afternoon session too where we should see some cracking action. It starts with the exciting German player Max Hopp going up against Peter Jacques before the former world champion Scott Waites takes on one of the most improved players over the last 12 months in Devon Petersen. Another of those improved players is third up on this board when Krzysztof Ratajski faces the Latvian number one Madars Razma before the best match of the lot on this board rounds off the action as Dave Chisnall meets Danny Noppert.
Betting
I’ll go with the one bet over the course of the afternoon and it comes on the main stage where Michael Smith clashes with Jose de Sousa in what could be considered as the pick of the matches in this last 32. These two are both class acts and played well against decent opponents on Friday night to make it through to this stage of the competition so there is no reason to think this will be anything but a cracker of a match.
I like Smith to win it though. De Sousa hasn’t really done a whole lot since he won the Grand Slam. He went to the last 16 of a couple of the Super Series events last week but disappointed at the World Championship and I’m not convinced he is at his best here. Even when he plays well he can be very scratchy on his doubles. Often his scoring power gets him out of trouble but that doesn’t work against Smith because ‘Bully Boy’ will outscore him. That might well be the reason why Smith won four of their five meetings last year, the loss being in the last eight of the Grand Slam where the St Helens ace had the mother of all mares on his doubles. He seems to have the bit between his teeth after being left out of the Premier League and I think Smith can remind everyone he isn’t done yet.
Tips
Back M.Smith to beat J.de Sousa for a 3/10 stake at 1.95 with Betfred
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