The World Championship continues with an evening session of action on Sunday night as eight players head onto the stage at Alexandra Palace looking to make progress in the biggest and best tournament of the year.
The early signs in this event is that the trend of last year with plenty of upsets and shocks is going to continue so the four favourites will be on edge, on a night where the women’s world champion and the man beaten in the final here last year headline the schedule.
Arron Monk vs Jose Justicia
The opening match of the night sees Arron Monk back at the World Championship for the first time since 2014 when he takes a tournament debutant Jose Justicia, the Spanish qualifier who will be looking to make a name for himself.
Monk goes into the match as a favourite, which is probably just about right but I don’t see him as a betting proposition. I wouldn’t like to suggest the last time Monk was a favourite to win any televised match, let alone one as high profile as this. My gut tells me Monk is there to be taken on but I can’t see anything either in the record, stats or what we’ve seen from Justicia that convinces me to do it. I’m still tempted to take Monk on but I’ll restrain myself enough.
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Andy Boulton vs Danny Baggish
The second match of the night could well be the best in terms of a competitive one as the experienced Englishman, Andy Boulton, taking on the American qualifier Danny Baggish, who we saw at the US Darts Masters earlier in the season.
This should be a good game because unlike some we’ve seen this week so far, the favourite has actually been in decent enough touch while the international player promises to offer up a good display, so it might be that we go all the way here. My instinct tells me that on experience Boulton will last home here but I respect the American enough to leave this one alone from a betting point of view but will keep a watching brief on it to see if either can do anything against Nathan Aspinall in the next round.
James Richardson vs Mikuru Suzuki
Two men were going to land short straws in this tournament in terms of being on a hiding to nothing by facing female players in the opening round of the event and James Richardson is the first of them to run the gauntlet. He faces the women’s world champion Mikuru Suzuki in a game where he can lose plenty but not gain a whole lot.
That dynamic adds to the interest of this one, and actually when you consider Suzuki averaged 90.12 in demolishing Lorraine Winstanley over this distance in the Women’s World Championship final and that she took three legs off both Gerwyn Price and Robert Thornton in the Grand Slam, the task awaiting Richardson gets tougher. I would expect the experience of Richardson to win through but I would make it a near certainty that he will face a test along the way. Richardson misses too many doubles to be comfortable that he wins this 3-0 though so I’ll take over 3.5 sets in this one.
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Michael Smith vs Luke Woodhouse
The one second round match on the evening sees the beaten finalist last year, Michael Smith, taking on a man who will be confident after a decent win over Paul Lim on Saturday afternoon in Luke Woodhouse, with a spot in the last 32 the prize for the winner.
Smith is a warm favourite to win this match and that is right but he needs to be careful here because if he is sloppy or has one of those nights where he doesn’t hit doubles crisply, Woodhouse is more than capable of hanging around and putting the St Helens man under more pressure than he needs to be. This isn’t a match I’m that interested in betting wise. If I was it would probably be on the 180s market but a 3-0 Smith win doesn’t give that enough of a chance as I’d like so I’ll sit this out too.
Tips
WON – Back J.Richardson vs M.Suzuki – Over 3.5 sets for a 4/10 stake at 1.73 with Sky Bet
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