The final day of the European Darts Matchplay takes place in Hamburg on Sunday and as with all European Tour events the tournament concludes with the last 16 in the afternoon and the latter stages all played out in the evening session.
Saturday’s last 32 passed by without any major shocks so all those who came here with their eyes on the title are very much still alive and fighting for it which makes for a potentially super Sunday to cap this event. The tournament is played out in draw order from here.
Top half
It all gets underway with Michael Smith vs Mensur Suljovic and Smith fans will know this hasn’t been a very kind match up for their man in the past. He has lost three of the last four matches against the Austrian and I’m not completely surprised with that because Smith is very much a rhythm player and you don’t get one of them against Suljovic.
The Premier League struggles look to have taken their toll on Smith at the minute. He isn’t the first and he won’t be the last to suffer that fate but you just get the feeling he isn’t totally happy with his game and that should play into the hands of Suljovic here.
These two met in the event in Gibraltar last week when Suljovic won 6-3 and I’m expecting something similar here. Smith never hit a single 180 against Rodriguez on Saturday which is unlike him whereas Suljovic averaged 96 in an impressive performance. At odds against he’s the value here.
The other matches see Dave Chisnall taking on John Henderson, Max Hopp vs Terry Jenkins and Peter Wright vs Jamie Caven. It would be a surprise if the higher ranked players don’t come through there but they are all priced accordingly so I’ll leave them alone.
Bottom half
The pick of the matches here looks like the one between Gary Anderson and James Wade. I’m expecting Anderson to back up last week’s win over Wade with another one but he’s too short to back.
Michael van Gerwen vs Daryl Gurney could be a great game if Gurney has the form he had on Sunday. They’ve already met in a final this year which shows the potential quality in that match but I’m not one to take on the Dutchman.
There is an all-Dutch battle between Benito van de Pas and Vincent van de Voort which could go either way on paper but if the van de Pas who hit seven 180s and a 107 average in the previous round turns up then he will certainly win. The odds look about right there.
The other match sees Adrian Lewis taking on Jelle Klaasen in what should be another great game. Lewis goes into this one off the back of securing his Premier League semi-final spot on Thursday night but he was laboured in a win over Rene Eidams on Saturday.
Jelle Klaasen played much better than Lewis on Saturday although he needed to but he’ll be confident at having won three of his last four over the Englishman. It was about this time last year that Klaasen clicked into top gear and I think he’s value in a match which isn’t much more than 50/50 even were both to play to their best.
Tips
WON – Back M.Suljovic to beat M.Smith for a 4/10 stake at 2.10 with Winner Sports
Back it here:
WON – Back J.Klaasen to beat A.Lewis for a 3/10 stake at 2.63 with Coral
Back it here:
