We are on to day five of the PDC World Darts Championship which is another day where two sessions of action takes place. We start off in the afternoon and as with the first four days we have three first round matches and a second round clash to enjoy.
That means we have one seed in action in this session and that is the former Grand Slam of Darts winner Jose de Sousa. We also have a former finalist in this tournament and some good youngsters to enjoy watching too.
Andrew Gilding vs Robert Owen
The opening match of the afternoon sees a pair of experienced players battling it out when Andrew Gilding starts his quest to cap off a fine season in style when he takes on Robert Owen who has been a huge success on the Challenge Tour this term.
The fact that Owen isn’t on the tour is probably an indication that there is a bit of a gulf between these two players but in fairness that Challenge Tour is getting stronger by the event and performing well on there takes some doing. If he takes his game onto the stage, and as a former semi-finalist at the UK Open you would imagine he will, then he could be a match for Gilding. Gilding is definitely no mug though. He made the final of a European Tour event in Belgium a few months ago and is no stranger to averaging around the 100 mark. If I was betting here I would take Gilding but the form of Owen is respectable enough to leave this one alone.
Danny Jansen vs Paolo Nebrida
Two debutants step onto the Alexandra Palace stage in the second match of the afternoon when the man with the mullet, Danny Jansen, looks to cap a first season off as a professional in style when he takes on the third Philippines player to compete this week already in Paolo Nebrida.
Nebrida has seen his countrymen Lourence Ilagan and Christian Perez put in great performances and he’ll be hoping to show what he can do here too. Ilagan made it into the second round and Perez would have followed suit had his doubles not let him down. Nebrida came through the Asian Championship where he made the final. In his quarter final he had an average of 90.03 and 86.80 in his semi-final so if he has that level with him here he can be competitive. Jansen has already won a tournament on the floor this year seeing off the likes of William O’Connor, Peter Wright, Krzysztof Ratajski, Chris Dobey, Dave Chisnall and Andrew Gilding along the way. He also has wins over Luke Humphries and Vincent van der Voort on the European Tour so he should be able to handle himself. The one thing we know about Jansen is as a young Dutch player scoring isn’t going to be an issue. You have to go a long way to find a youngster from that part of the world who can’t score and he has a 180 line for this one of just 2.5 which feels low. If this is 3-0 we need him to find a 180 per set but there is enough in that Asian Championship to suggest that if Nebrida settles he can run Jansen close so we might well get a fourth and possibly fifth set. That should be ample time for the 20-year-old to plough in a third 180 at some point.
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Niels Zonneveld vs Lewy Williams
The last of the first round matches in the afternoon session on Monday sees two more younger players battling out, albeit two who have both competed on this stage before, when Niels Zonneveld takes on Lewy Williams for a place in the second round.
Zonneveld has probably achieved more in his career at the minute and is holding down a fair enough spot on the tour whereas Williams had to rely on his Development Tour results to get him into this event. We’ve already seen Nathan Rafferty and Josh Rock from that circuit perform well here though and Williams does have a win on this stage to his name so he shouldn’t be overawed by the challenge. Whether he is good enough is another story. I suspect he might not be because Zonneveld has a European Tour win over Peter Wright this season and floor wins over the likes of Luke Humphries, Jonny Clayton, Michael Smith and Dimitri Van den Bergh. The Dutchman is playing for his tour future though and that added pressure is enough to put me off backing him but I wouldn’t want to be opposing him.
Jose de Sousa vs Simon Whitlock
The one second round match in the session looks like a potential cracker as the former Grand Slam of Darts winner Jose de Sousa meets the man who lost out in the 2011 final on this very stage in Simon Whitlock.
This is an interesting match because in essence they are the same player. Both plough in the 180s like there is no tomorrow but both can be guilty of missing a large amount of doubles. Whitlock very much did the latter in the first round but was incredibly fortunate that Christian Perez missed even more to allow him to come through in a deciding set. Whitlock was 11/33 on the doubles in that one but might need to tidy that up to win this. In saying that, de Sousa isn’t exactly pulling up trees at the minute so the Australian could catch his Portuguese foe on a going day and come out on top. There are too many question marks about both of these men and I wouldn’t want to rely on the doubling of either with my dough involved so I’m happy to sit this one out and watch it.
Tips
Back D.Jansen – Over 2.5 180s for a 3/10 stake at 2.25 with Betfair
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