After a dramatic but hugely entertaining first day of The Masters in Milton Keynes we are left with four juicy looking quarter finals which will be played out in one session of play on Sunday afternoon.
The opening day had everything from comebacks from 8-0 down to 112 averages and everything in between. It was a bad day for the World Championship semi-finalists as all four came and were beaten in their first round match.
Gary Anderson was the biggest and most surprising casualty. He was dismissed by Vincent van der Voort while Adrian Lewis came a cropper against Kim Huybrechts. Phil Taylor and Michael Smith achieved World Championship revenge over Jelle Klaasen and Raymond Barneveld respectively.
Despite those exits the quarter final line up looks good and they begin with the match between James Wade and Kim Huybrechts. Wade wasn’t brilliant in beating Terry Jenkins in the first round but a win is a win but he’ll need to improve if Huybrechts shows the same form as he did in beating Lewis.
Wade’s doubling was very patchy which was a surprise but his scoring was strong which was encouraging so he’ll be feeling both good and bad. I’m sure he’ll come on for the run so to speak having had some times away from the board.
Huybrechts often puts in these odd great performances but when the challenge comes to back it up he can sometimes struggle so it will be big for him to do that here. If he does he could well win but Wade has a 10-4 career record over the Belgian for a reason and I’ll hide behind that. I’m on Wade outright so I’ve no need to touch this match.
I will get involved in the second game though which sees Dave Chisnall taking on Vincent van der Voort. This should be a great watch with both being quick, fluent players who both know their way around the 60 bed.
Chisnall will be wondering how on earth he is still in this tournament having trailed Thornton 8-0 at one stage in the first round but credit to him for keeping going and believing he could turn it around.
Van der Voort showed good mental strength in the first round too. He repelled the challenge of Gary Anderson with some brilliant darts and some really clinical finishing and if he doesn’t suffer an emotional comedown then the Dutchman is likely to be a big threat here.
After the first round I’m not going to guess how this will end in terms of the match result itself but I am happy to predict we will see 180s in the match and I’m surprised the line is as low as 9.5.
Between them in their first round they hit 15 180s and we know Chisnall is a machine on the 60 when he gets going but van der Voort had a lovely rhythm and if he can find that again he’ll pepper the 60 and in turn hit a number of 180s himself so this line looks a touch low to me.
Phil Taylor and Peter Wright have met on 20 occasions and while Taylor leads their head to head 15-5 Wright has won two of their last three meetings which is enough to give him encouragement in this match.
The way he won a decent match against Ian White in the first round is also enough to encourage him and I think he can really lay it down to Taylor in this match. Taylor eased past Jelle Klaasen in the first round but it was hard to assess his form because Klaasen never showed up until it was too late but Taylor looked much happier which is a positive sign.
The last four meetings between these two have been quite close and a little bit prior to that they played out a 6-6 draw in the Premier League so there is enough to suggest these two might be fairly evenly matched so I’m expecting a lengthy quarter final here and given that over 16.5 legs is odds against I’m interested in that here.
Finally Michael van Gerwen takes on Michael Smith in what should be another good match. You’d be a brave man to take on MVG after his first round performance and I’m certainly not going to do it.
Hopefully Michael Smith can turn up with his A game and turn this into a real classic but as far as betting is concerned there isn’t really a line on anything which I can get my teeth into so I’ll watch and hope it turns out to be as good a match as it has the potential to be.
Back V.van der Voort vs D.Chisnall – Over 9.5 180s for a 4/10 stake at 1.83 with Skybet
Back P.Taylor vs P.Wright – Over 16.5 legs for a 4/10 stake at 2.10 with Skybet
