The PDC World Darts Championship continues with another double header of action on Thursday beginning in the afternoon where four more second round matches take place inside Alexandra Palace in London.
Third round spots are up for grabs over the course of this session which means the reward for players on show is a return to the tournament after Christmas so there is so much to play for over the course of the afternoon.
Krzysztof Ratajski vs Danny Jansen
The opening match of the afternoon sees the Poland number one Krzysztof Ratajski taking on a Danny Jansen who has won a match on this stage already but who didn’t perform particularly great and will need a serious improvement if he is to challenge his opponent here.
Ratajski has had a mixed year on TV this year and could do with a run in this tournament both for his ranking as he is defending quarter final money from two years ago and also for his own confidence to take into 2023. He should have it good against Jansen, who although he has won a Players Championship event this year really hasn’t done a huge amount more and he looked very ordinary in beating Paolo Nebrida with an 83.42 average. Ratajski should cruise through this assignment but I’d like him to be playing better than he has been in order to back him.
Ryan Searle vs Adam Gawlas
The second match of the afternoon sees Ryan Searle looking to continue his good record in this tournament when he takes on the first of two Czech players to take to the stage over the course of the afternoon in Adam Gawlas.
Searle has had an up and down time of it since he made the final of the Players Championship Finals last year. He has only made one quarter final from all the TV tournaments and European Tour events in 2022 and he’s a lot better than that so he’ll be looking to use this tournament to repair the damage of the year so far. Gawlas achieved his biggest win in the first round when he came out on top in a ridiculously edgy clash with Richie Burnett and sealed his status as a professional in doing so. The fact his future is more secure now means the Czech star might be able to relax and bring his best game onto the stage. He’ll probably need to because if and when Searle gets a rhythm and on a roll he can be very tough to stop. I expect Searle to win this but I fancy Gawlas could keep him honest and so over 3.5 Searle 180s is the way forward here. He is more than good enough to cover this in a 3-0 win but if Gawlas extends this beyond three sets then we are into the territory where Searle would need to average one 180 per set at the very least. He is more than good enough to do that so I like the over there.
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Mensur Suljovic vs Mike De Decker
The penultimate match of the afternoon sees the Austrian number one Mensur Suljovic looking to find some form on the big stage when he goes up against the Belgian player Mike De Decker, who was a winner over Jeff Smith in the opening round.
The last time we saw Suljovic was at the Players Championship Finals where he was a first round loser to James Wade and had that very bizarre leg where he spent the entirety of it throwing for tops, D14 and the bullseye. That looked to be an admission that his form isn’t great and his head isn’t in the game at the minute. That might have changed in the intervening three weeks but he has still only won one of his last seven matches and that was only with an average of 83.98. If that Suljovic turns up here then De Decker is going to have a great chance to make the third round and set up a clash with Michael van Gerwen. De Decker made the semi-final of the second to last Players Championship tournament of the season where he beat Jonny Clayton, Kim Huybrechts and Rob Cross before losing to Gerwyn Price in the last four. That and the first round win over Smith is enough to convince me that De Decker can come through here against a Suljovic who has looked well past his best throughout the year.
Dirk van Duijvenbode vs Karel Sedlacek
We finish the afternoon session with a battle of two European players as Dirk van Duijvenbode takes to the Alexandra Palace stage when he goes up against a Karel Sedlacek who gave one of the best first round performances of the lot in beating Raymond Smith.
Van Duijvenbode has been excellent throughout the year with a final, a semi-final and two quarter finals on the TV as well as three more quarter finals on the European Tour and two titles on the floor. He was a quarter finalist here two years ago so he is under pressure in this match as he’s defended good money. Sedlacek averaged 98.72 in beating Smith in the first round and if he has that level with him here then he is entitled to be very dangerous. We’ve seen a few times in recent times that van Duijvenbode can start slowly on TV and while he has a little longer to catch up should that happen here, there might be no catching the Czech if he gets away from him. I don’t want to oppose DvD but I’d like to see his form before I get stuck into backing him.
Tips
Back R.Searle – Over 3.5 180s for a 3/10 stake at 1.91 with Betfair
Back M.De Decker to beat M.Suljovic for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Coral
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