There is another two session day of action at the PDC World Darts Championship on Saturday and we get underway with a morning and afternoon session of first and second round matches inside the Alexandra Palace.
Daryl Gurney is a former TV tournament winner and he headlines the first session of the day but there are a number of competent tungsten tossers looking to make progress over the course of the afternoon.
Martin Lukeman vs Nobuhiro Yamamoto
Two debutants will get the action started when the European Tour finalist Martin Lukeman looks to make it into the second round when he goes up against the second Japanese player to take to the stage this week in Nobuhiro Yamamoto.
Toru Suzuki didn’t exactly showcase himself in the best light on Friday so Yamamoto will be hoping to offer up a much better showing but Lukeman is gaining in experience on these big stages all the time and although he is on debut here, you sense the occasion won’t get the better of him. Yamamoto won the Japan Championship to make it into this tournament but there was nothing too impressive about his run statistically and you sense he’ll need to be at his very best just to win a set here. Lukeman to win 3-0 is odds on. That should land but history tells us there is little value in odds on shots in markets like that in this tournament so I’ll sit this one out.
Simon Whitlock vs Christian Perez
The second match of the day sees the 2011 finalist Simon Whitlock looking to make it into the second round and secure a date with Jose de Sousa. In order to book that he has to beat Christian Perez who he faces on TV for the second time in as many months.
These two met at the Grand Slam of Darts last month where Whitlock won 5-3 in a good match in which Perez averaged 91. You would imagine Perez will be inspired here after his countryman Lourence Ilagan pulled off an upset win on Friday night and if he can use that as inspiration and perform to the level he did against the Australian at the Grand Slam he could keep Whitlock honest. You would imagine this match is all about Whitlock though. He’ll dominate the scoring and if he finishes to any acceptable level he’ll come through but all the prices and lines are about right.
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Adam Gawlas vs Richie Burnett
The last of the first round matches in the afternoon sees the Czech number one Adam Gawlas fighting for his place on the tour when he goes up against Richie Burnett who has qualified for this tournament once again after eight years in the wilderness.
This promises to be an entertaining match but there is no getting away from the fact that one man is under all kinds of pressure here and the other is basically on a bit of a free roll here. Gawlas will be off back to Q-School if he loses this match and we shouldn’t forget that he is making his debut in this encounter as well. Burnett has bags of experience and probably achieved something he didn’t think he would do when he qualified for this tournament. He has nothing to prove and can just look to play his best game and give the Czech youngster something to think about. We know Burnett is an entertainer who loves the big stage but he has had some good wins on the floor this year, one of which came against Gawlas as recently as October. I do think Burnett wins this but there’s no real value in him so I’ll take a watching brief here.
Daryl Gurney vs Alan Soutar
The one match from the second round in this session looks a potential cracker as the former Players Championship Finals winner Daryl Gurney goes up against an Alan Soutar who was a quarter finalist at the Grand Slam as recently as last month.
Soutar had a good win in the first round on Friday but I think it is fair to say he had an opponent who played into his hands in Mal Cuming who was visibly full of nerves and then when he settled he just didn’t perform. There is no doubt Soutar is one of the improvers outside the top 32 and when this thing comes around next year it will be a surprise if he isn’t a seed but it always concerns me how many doubles he misses and against the better players that can cost him. Even against Cuming he was only 9/25 on the doubles. Gurney is defending quarter final money from a couple of years ago here and while he isn’t playing for his career he is playing for his relevance in the game so I refuse to believe he is going to turn up here underprepared and if we see him at his best or close to it I do still think he is a better player than the Scot. Soutar has averaged under 90 in three of his last five TV matches and if he has another of those performances in him he’ll get beat here. I’ll take Gurney in this one.
Tips
Back D.Gurney to beat A.Soutar for a 3/10 stake at 1.80 with BetVictor
Back him here:
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