The opening night of the World Matchplay consists of four matches on Saturday evening as the Blackpool extravaganza gets underway in fine style with a host of big names and potentially competitive contests.
We have the UK Open winner, the defending champion and a couple of former world champions on what looks a wonderful first night card. The best-of-19 legs format should allow all eight players to bring out their best work so we should be in for a great evening.
Nathan Aspinall vs Mervyn King (H2H 0-0)
The opening match of the tournament sees the UK Open winner Nathan Aspinall taking to the stage when he goes up against the veteran Mervyn King whose recent form has been quite mixed but who we know produces his best on the big occasion.
Aspinall is one of the players of the season and reaffirmed that status with his fine victory in Las Vegas a couple of weeks ago. He is a major player in this tournament but the interesting dynamic is that he won’t have been favourite for too many matches on stages such as this. King will need to show a fair improvement on anything we’ve seen from him in recent times but he does have that in him so I’m not so sure I want to be getting involved in this one.
Gerwyn Price vs Stephen Bunting (H2H 3-2)
The second match of the opening night of action sees the Grand Slam champion Gerwyn Price going up against the former World Championship winner Stephen Bunting in another underrated match on the evening schedule.
Bunting has shown signs of a return to form in recent times and made it to the final of the Czech tournament last month which was good to see but he has his work cut out here against a Gerwyn Price who has beaten him in each of their last three meetings and in truth none of them were particularly close.
Although Bunting is finding his form at the lower levels, the biggest stages can still be an issue. It might not be the stage that gets him but the format may well do. Price has been operating at this level and at longer formats than this for the last year or more and doing it very well. I think he’ll have a bit too much for Bunting here.
Bet on the World Matchplay with Boylesports and get double winnings as a free bet on ALL markets if the final checkout is 100+! All customers! Click the image above to bet on this fantastic offer! 18+ T&Cs apply. Gamble Aware.
Gary Anderson vs Danny Noppert (H2H 1-1)
The headline match of the night is the one in which Gary Anderson begins his title defence when he takes on the former world finalist Danny Noppert in the third match of the evening. Both men have a win over each other which should see this one as competitive.
All eyes will be on Anderson here to see how he goes over this distance. Clearly he is the better player of the two, despite Noppert being of sufficient quality, but he could lack competitive reps and this distance might find him out if he isn’t careful. I would expect Anderson to be fine here but maybe longer in the tournament he’ll be found out. I’m not wanting to back Anderson until we know for sure his form but I’m not waiting to take him on just yet either.
Rob Cross vs Chris Dobey (H2H 3-1)
It might be that the biggest and the best match of the opening evening of the tournament is the one which features the former world champion Rob Cross and arguably the best of the next brigade along with Aspinall in the form of Chris Dobey.
I believe Dobey to be the real deal and when you factor in Cross is under huge pressure in this match there is a serious chance for the youngster to deliver the goods here. Cross will battle though, he has no choice in that, so this should be a belter of a contest, one which could easily need more legs than is scheduled initially.
I’m a little surprised that we can get odds against on over 16.5 legs in this match because I really see this being close throughout. Dobey probably has the edge on the scoring while Cross perhaps the edge on the finishing but both men shine on the big stage and so I expect this one to be 10-7 or closer either way. I’ll take the over here.
Tips
Back G.Price (-2.5 legs) to beat S.Bunting for a 4/10 stake at 1.85 with Betfair
Back him here:
Back R.Cross vs C.Dobey – Over 16.5 legs for a 4/10 stake at 2.10 with Coral
Back it here:
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2019
