The opening night of the World Grand Prix darts takes place on Sunday evening when the action gets underway with the top half of the draw playing out their first round matches in Leicester on a night where drama and upsets are guaranteed.
The best of three sets and double to start format makes any favourite vulnerable so although the quality might not be the highest with the pressure the players are under, the tension, drama and excitement won’t be lacking.
First Four Matches
The opening match of the night is very much a clash of the new against the old as Martijn Kleermaker makes his debut against a man who has been to the final of this tournament in the form of Mervyn King. When they are done the man who was beaten in the final of the event last year takes to the stage when Dirk van Duijvenbode meets another of the debutants in this tournament in the shape of the UK Open finalist Luke Humphries.
There are a number of former champions on show on Sunday evening with the first of those being Daryl Gurney. He goes up against a very competitive Stephen Bunting in what is a candidate among the many to go to a deciding set. We then reach the halfway point of the evening with Joe Cullen going up against Ross Smith in what might be a match both men feel they can win given the year they have had away from the big stage.
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Later Four Matches
The second half of the evening kicks off with a clash between two men who have good records in this tournament as Dave Chisnall takes on our pre-tournament outright pick Mensur Suljovic who will be looking to extend his good recent form. When they are done another of the former champions will take to the stage when James Wade looks to make it into the second round once again. He meets the Australian player Damon Heta.
The match of the first round forms the penultimate match of the evening when the defending champion Gerwyn Price gets his title defence underway when he takes on the highest ranked unseeded player in the form of Michael Smith in what looks like being a cracking contest. The evening concludes with the classy Dimitri Van den Bergh taking on a Ryan Searle who could be quite dangerous if he hits his doubles to a decent percentage.
Betting
I’ll go with a couple of outsiders over the course of the evening with the first of them being the man who made the final of this event last year in Dirk van Duijvenbode. He bucked a pretty strong trend that debutants don’t go very well here and he’ll hope that trend continues because he takes on Luke Humphries who has made it into this event for the first time. I’m not sure about Humphries here. I’m a big fan of his overall but too often he has an absolute disaster on his doubles on the big stage and that costs him. We know he scores for fun but that doesn’t count for a whole lot if you can’t hit the starting double let alone the finishing one. Van Duijvenbode doesn’t have a lot of form to his name but I think he is more reliable on the doubles. He can mix it in the scoring phase and having tasted the tournament and the format he looks a decent bet at odds against.
The other bet I like is Michael Smith to beat Gerwyn Price. Smith is often at his best when he has a point to prove and having not made it into the Premier League this year or the World Cup, Bully Boy certainly has a bit to prove. I wouldn’t say he has nothing to lose here but he probably won’t find people who think he will win this as readily as he might like. I don’t think he’s without a chance though. Although Price spread-eagled the field in Gibraltar last week, he pulled out of the Copenhagen event with an elbow issue so there is no guarantee the world number one will be fully fit here. Even if he is the format offers up the chance of an upset. Smith is more than capable of a purple patch of 15 minutes and if he can be spot on at tops he can cause the shock.
Tips
Back D.van Duijvenbode to beat L.Humphries for a 3/10 stake at 2.25 with Betfair
Back him here:
Back M.Smith to beat G.Price for a 3/10 stake at 3.25 with BetVictor
Back him here:
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