After a quite extraordinary Friday at the BDO World Championship the tournament heads to a close on Saturday where the first senior silverware will be dished out inside the Lakeside Country Club when the women’s final takes place. The men’s semi-finals make up another bumper day of action.
All four men’s quarter finals went to a deciding set on Friday so there are going to be some tired players with nerves absolutely frayed on show on Saturday along with arguably the two best women in the game.
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Lisa Ashton vs Anastasia Dobromyslova
The women’s final will see the defending champion Lisa Ashton looking to successfully defend her title when she takes on the Russian star Anastasia Dobromyslova. These two will do battle over the best of five sets which should make for a better match.
There is no doubt these two women have been the best in the tournament so we should be in for a belting final and I wouldn’t be surprised to see it going all the way either. We have a sort of clash in styles with the heavy scoring Ashton against the much better finishing skills of Dobromyslova.
That said, I don’t think Anastasia’s scoring is that far behind Lisa’s and having checked out at 45% this week if Ashton lets her opponent chuck at a double she may pay the price. I think this will be a close final but the price dictates that Anastasia is the bet.
Glen Durrant vs Scott Waites
The opening semi-final in the men’s competition sees the defending champion Glen Durrant taking on Scott Waites in a battle of the last two winners of the Lakeside title. We’re up to the best of 11 sets now and this could be a classic.
Waites beat Durrant on his way to the title two years ago and you would think if he wins this match he will follow suit but Durrant showed he is a class above this field in the quarter final even allowing for the fact he fell 4-1 down to Jim Williams. He ended with an average over 100 for the match which highlights Waites’ task here.
I don’t think Waites is good enough to win this match but I respect his fighting instincts enough not to take him on a big looking handicap. I’m going to sit this out one but I wouldn’t be surprised if it is closer than expected.
Mark McGeeney vs Michael Unterbuchner
The second semi-final sees two men looking for a place in their first Lakeside final taking each other on when the world number one Mark McGeeney meets Michael Unterbuchner for the right to shoot for the title on Sunday.
There is no doubt that the German has been the talk of the week and the surprise package of it too but he is yet to average 90 in the tournament and that is the bare minimum you would think he will need if he is to progress here. He should have that sort of game in him but whether he can bring that out in the final remains to be seen.
We certainly know that McGeeney has that. We saw it on the way to the final of the Winmau World Masters and generally his performances have got better this week. It was to Wayne Warren’s credit that he pushed McGeeney all the way. I think he is getting stronger as the week goes on and I fancy he’ll have little problem in getting to his first world final.
Tips
Back A.Dobromyslova to beat L.Ashton for a 4/10 stake at 2.38 with BetVictor
Back her here:
Back M.McGeeney (-2.5 sets) to beat M.Unterbuchner for a 4/10 stake at 2.20 with Bwin
Back him here:
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