The final of the World Matchplay will be played out in front of what will be a packed Winter Gardens crowd in Blackpool on Sunday evening when Dimitri Van den Bergh takes on his good friend Peter Wright in a mouth-watering clash.
Van den Bergh will be looking to make a successful defence of his title after he claimed the Phil Taylor Trophy in Milton Keynes 12 months ago. Wright has won plenty tournaments in his career but he hasn’t won this one so he’ll be looking to end that statistic here.
Dimitri Van den Bergh
At the start of the week many people thought that Dimitri Van den Bergh could win this title again but there was a question mark over whether he only won it last year because there were no crowds. He has emphatically put that suggestion to bed and it might be that the experience of lifting this title stands him in good stead here. It has certainly helped him as the competition has gone on because whenever he has been in competitive situations he has risen to the challenge.
Van den Bergh hasn’t had the easiest route through to the final. He was given an easy ride in the first round when Devon Petersen didn’t really show up in their match but then he saw off a committed Dave Chisnall, fought fire with fire against Gerwyn Price in the quarter final and then overpowered Krzysztof Ratajski in the semi-final. He was loose in the early stages of that last four clash though and he won’t be able to get away with that in this final so he needs to tighten up a little.
Peter Wright
Peter Wright made a bit of a rod for his own back when he said before the tournament that he was going to win it but to be fair to him he is only a win away from being true to his word. He has been the best player in the tournament so far and although that doesn’t always equate to winning the title, he will hope that his form to date can be replicated and that he can indeed get over the line and complete the job he said he was going to.
Much like his opponent Van den Bergh, Wright had a comfortable showing in the opening match when Danny Noppert wasn’t really at his best but he has overpowered the field since then. Joe Cullen tried hard but could make no impression on Wright. Since then the former world champion has cruised past Michael Smith and Michael van Gerwen with two emphatic performances which was reflected in the scores at the end of each match.
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Head to Head
These two men have met on 12 previous occasions and it is Wright who has had more than the edge on them. He leads their head to head 9-2 and there was a Premier League draw earlier in the year. Van den Bergh hasn’t won any of their last six matches against Wright so he is immediately up against it here. This will be the first time they have met in the World Matchplay but they have met three times on TV before. Wright leads 2-0 with that draw earlier in the season. This is the first time they have met at a distance longer than the best of 14 legs though.
Betting
I’ll go with a couple of bets for this final, a final which I think will be a really high standard but one I think Peter Wright can win with a little bit in hand. He is playing to such a high level at the minute and while Van den Bergh can match him for long periods, I’m a little concerned that he relied on a number of missed doubles by Krzysztof Ratajski to get on top of the Pole in the semi-final. Wright isn’t going to miss that many in this match and his scoring consistency isn’t going to give Van den Bergh an easy time of it. I expect Wright to win a hard-fought final something in the region of 18-13 or 18-14.
The other bet I like is over 22.5 180s. Even though I expect Wright to win I do still expect this to be a close match. When these two meet there tends to be 180s. Their two Premier League matches earlier in the campaign had 12 and 13 legs in them and both matches had a dozen 180s so really at that ratio we probably only need sort of 26-27 legs in this final and I certainly expect that. There was also a European Tour event a couple of years ago when they combined for 13 180s in 11 legs. I expect that trend to continue here.
Tips
Back P.Wright (-2.5 legs) to beat D.Van den Bergh for a 3/10 stake at 2.10 with BetVictor
Back him here:
Back Over 22.5 180s for a 3/10 stake at 1.85 with Betfair
Back them here:
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