The first round of the World Grand Prix concludes on Monday evening when the bottom half of the draw play their opening matches in the tournament inside the CityWest Hotel in Dublin. This half of the draw looks loaded so we should be in for a decent evening.
The opening day of action was pretty mundane so the tournament needs a good night and with the quality of players on show we should get it. There are eight matches in total which should provide plenty of drama.
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First Four Matches
The former finalist Mervyn King opens up the show when he takes on Jermaine Wattimena who is making his debut in the tournament. Another debutant follows then when Josh Payne takes on the form man Ian White. Two more men in good touch meet in the third game of the night when Danny Noppert and Gerwyn Price collide before the world number two, Peter Wright, looks to put an indifferent record in this tournament behind him when he plays Steve West who had his biggest night on this stage.
Later Four Matches
The world champion Rob Cross gets the second half of the evening underway as he takes on Steve Beaton for the second year in a row. Beaton thrashed him last year so Cross could be on a revenge mission. The match of the first round follows them when Mensur Suljovic takes on the former champion James Wade before last year’s runner up Simon Whitlock takes on James Wilson. The final match of the night is another juicy looking battle as Michael Smith faces Adrian Lewis.
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Betting
I like a couple of bets over the course of the evening with the first of them coming in the form of Mervyn King. We saw on the opening night that debutants still struggle to get going in this format but we also saw that lightning fast throwers can be very inconsistent in this tournament and that is very much a concern for Jermaine Wattimena. King is the pillar of consistency and he is one of the best double 16 hitters in the game. I’ll go with the more reliable man in this one.
Danny Noppert makes his debut in the tournament which is a slight concern but he’s so level headed that I don’t think it will be too much of a problem for him. He comes into the competition high on confidence after his win in the Players Championship event over the weekend. He took care of Ian White and Rob Cross on his way to that success and that comes off the back of a run to a European Tour semi-final earlier in the month where Mensur Suljovic was among his victims. Gerwyn Price won that tournament so he’ll be confident heading in here too but he never convinces me as a favourite which is a concern, as is the fact he’s been here three times and only won one match. I’ll side with the Dutchman here.
Tips
Back M.King to beat J.Wattimena for a 4/10 stake at 1.90 with Betfair
Back him here:
Back D.Noppert to beat G.Price for a 4/10 stake at 2.60 with Boylesports
Back him here:
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