The first round of the World Grand Prix concludes inside the Morningside Arena in Leicester on Monday evening when the bottom half of the draw take to the stage to open up their campaign with the 16 players all looking to book spots in the second round.
We saw some good darts on the opening night of the tournament but surprisingly not too many shocks. It will be interesting to see if the big names are as safe on Monday evening or whether the surprise results come along.
First Four Matches
We get underway on Monday night with a couple of journeymen battling it out for a place in the second round when the debutant Darius Labanauskas takes on the former finalist Brendan Dolan. Another debutant takes to the stage in the second match of the night when Callan Rydz embarks on this format for the first time. He has got a bit of a rough draw though because he’ll face the Premier League champion Jonny Clayton for a place in the next round.
Two of the best that continental Europe have to offer grace the stage for the third match of the night when the experienced Vincent van der Voort takes on the German Giant, Gabriel Clemens, who is playing in this tournament for the second time. When they are done arguably the match of the night takes place when the former Premier League finalist Nathan Aspinall takes on the solid Krzysztof Ratajski, who surprisingly is looking for his first win in this format.
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Later Four Matches
As with Sunday night, the matches involving the four seeds have been saved for last. The first seeded player on show on Monday evening is Gary Anderson. It will be interesting to see how he fares after he pulled out of the World Cup quite late on. He faces a tricky test in the form of Ian White before two former world champions battle it out for a second round place when the World Matchplay champion Peter Wright takes on Rob Cross.
Michael van Gerwen begins his quest for a sixth World Grand Prix title in the penultimate match of the night when he takes on his former World Cup teammate Danny Noppert knowing the size of the task in front of him. Two TV tournament winners from 2020 meet to round off the opening stage of the competition when the Grand Slam champion Jose de Sousa takes on the Premier League winner of that year in Glen Durrant.
Betting
On what should be a decent night of darts there is only the one bet that I like over the course of the evening. That comes in the third match of the session where Vincent van der Voort meets Gabriel Clemens in a match I think the Dutchman is an ounce of value to come out on top in. You wouldn’t say that if you went by the form guide but if you look back to Sunday, Mensur Suljovic was in brilliant form coming in and lost while Dimitri Van den Bergh also lost so form isn’t everything in this event.
Doubles is everything though and in the main Van der Voort is decent enough on his doubles whereas his German opponent can be very shaky on them if he gets off to a poor start on them. Clemens can also flatten out his scoring at certain times as well which is never ideal. This one should be played to a rhythm which will suit van der Voort and the one thing we know about the Dutchman is with the crowd behind him he generally raises his game on the big stage. I’ll back him to do that again here.
Tips
Back V.Van der Voort to beat G.Clemens for a 3/10 stake at 2.25 with BetVictor
Back him here:
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