The last 16 of the PDC World Darts Championship will come to an end on Saturday when two more fascinating sessions of action take place inside the Alexandra Palace in London, and by the end of the day we will know the eight men doing battle in the quarter final.
We’ve already seen Nathan Aspinall and Michael van Gerwen make it into the last eight when they came through on Friday evening and now we get to see which six men will join them in the quarter finals on Sunday.
Steve Beaton vs Darius Labanauskas
The opening match of the day will produce a very surprising quarter finalist as the veteran Steve Beaton takes on the solid and durable man from Lithuania in Darius Labanauskas, with the spectre of Michael van Gerwen on the horizon for the winner.
Both these men have come through their draw nicely. Labanauskas has seen off Ian White to get to this stage while Beaton has taken out Kyle Anderson and James Wade and when you look through all their statistics so far there really isn’t a whole lot between them so you can see this one going quite close so it could be all about who holds their nerve. If there is an advantage to be had Beaton could hold it both on experience and that little extra scoring power that he possesses. I’ve always been a big Labanauskas fan going back to his BDO days but he’s what I call one paced. Beaton has enough of an extra gear to come through here.
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Kim Huybrechts vs Luke Humphries
Another match which will produce something of a surprise quarter finalist comes in the second game of the afternoon when the experienced Kim Huybrechts takes on a Luke Humphries who seems to absolutely love this stage and plays well on it.
Huybrechts came here in no form whatsoever and in desperate need of a decent run else his ranking would have been far too low for someone of his class. He is now at the stage where if he can find a couple more wins he shoots himself back towards the top 16 once again. It is a pretty big afternoon for Humphries too. If he can find a couple of wins over this weekend he’ll be in the top 32 in the world so this has the potential to be a life changing few days for one of these men.
I don’t see an awful lot between these two players, as evidenced by the fact their only previous meeting ended 6-5 to Humphries. I am conscious that Humphries won’t have been a favourite on this stage too often, especially with this prize on the line. Huybrechts might enjoy the underdog tag here and in what should be another close match looks decent value at 6/4.
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Dimitri Van den Bergh vs Adrian Lewis
Two men who have the words world champion next to their name meet to round off the afternoon when the former World Youth winner Dimitri Van den Bergh takes on Adrian Lewis who has won this crown twice in the past.
This is an intriguing clash. Van den Bergh was brilliant in the second round but ordinary in the third round while Lewis has shown glimpses that his best form is waiting to burst through, but he hasn’t delivered on that just yet. What he has done though is play well under pressure, both when he has been two sets down in his two matches, and in both deciding sets to come through. That sort of thing can give a player confidence. I’d be surprised if Van den Bergh is as bad again so this should also be a good game. It could go either way. I’d edge towards Lewis but as I’m on him for this quarter I’ll leave it there and hopefully watch him win.
Tips
Back S.Beaton to beat D.Labanauskas for a 4/10 stake at 1.83 with BetVictor
Back him here:
Back K.Huybrechts to beat L.Humphries for a 4/10 stake at 2.50 with 888sport
Back him here:
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