The knockout stages of the Grand Slam of Darts gets underway in Wolverhampton on Wednesday evening when the top half of the draw plays down to the quarter final stage of the event on what should be a good night of darts.
We are done with the group phase and the format doubles for these last 16 matches which should allow the stars on show a little more freedom to display their best stuff, which should see the quality go much higher.
Josh Rock vs Krzysztof Ratajski
The opening match of the last 16 will see two men who don’t usually go too deep in TV events very often battling it out for a quarter final spot when the exciting Josh Rock takes on the experienced Polish player Krzysztof Ratajski.
Rock cruised through his group with three wins and when you consider it included Jonny Clayton and Chris Dobey that was no mean effort. Ratajski followed James Wade out of Group A with his only defeat coming in a deciding leg to the world champion Michael Smith. This has the feel of an even match about it given the prize that is on offer to the two of them and I wouldn’t be surprised if this comes down to a missed double here and there. If I had to pick I’d go with Ratajski on experience and I wasn’t overly impressed with Rock in that final group game even allowing for the fact he was already through. Ratajski might be carrying a bit more momentum into the match with him but I think better bets lie elsewhere.
James Wade vs Chris Dobey
The second match of the night should have seen the world champion Michael Smith in action but James Wade wasn’t a fan of that particular script and instead it is he who will line up against The Masters champion Chris Dobey.
Dobey couldn’t really find his best stuff in the group stage but I suspect that was down to the format. His record in the shorter format action this season has been very indifferent. He was the last man into the field at the European Championship where apart from the semi-finals and final the qualifying events are all best of 11 and over the same format to qualify for the Players Championship Finals later in the month he is only seeded 29 but the longer the format goes the better he seems to play as we saw at the World Championship and The Masters. Wade played well in the group stage but even he accepts that these days he just hangs around and feeds on the scraps but if Dobey finds his scoring rhythm over this length of match, which I think most expect him to do, there might not be a lot to feed on. These two met in the World Matchplay over this format and Dobey won and I think he wins here too but I’d like a little more meat on the bone in terms of price to get involved. Dobey is 4/5 to win the match but you can get 6/5 if you add him to hit the most 180s to the bet. At the World Matchplay he won 10-8 in legs and 8-4 in 180s and even though he hasn’t scored like he can so far Dobey still has more 180s in this tournament than Wade. Putting them both together makes sense to me.
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Gerwyn Price vs Gary Anderson
The pick of the last 16 matches on the Wednesday card is the third match onto the stage where memories of the 2018 final of this tournament will be revoked as the former champion Gerwyn Price takes on the man he denied on that occasion in Gary Anderson.
Price has looked supremely good so far in a tournament he clearly relishes having won it three times in the past. He has dropped just two legs in reaching this stage of the event and has been ploughing in some big averages as a result. All parts of his game look in good order and now that the format has increased he is going to be tough to beat from here on in. Anderson is certainly good enough to beat him but the concern over the Scot is while he might go toe-to-toe with his Welsh rival in the scoring facet of his game, his doubling has been a little too erratic for comfort in this tournament. Anderson started off hitting 5/23 on doubles against Dirk van Duijvenbode before 1/4 against Luke Humphries and then 5/11 against Steve Lennon, who had no scoring to put any pressure on him. 11/38 isn’t going to get the job done here you feel so Anderson will need to be at his very best at the end of legs to come through here. At his best that could easily happen and while Anderson is getting back to his better levels, he has always been about peaking for the World Championship. I see them one starting out competitive but the longer it goes those doubles come under more scrutiny and that is when I expect Price to pull away from his man.
Luke Humphries vs Ryan Searle
The final match onto the stage on Wednesday night sees the World Grand Prix champion Luke Humphries taking on the man who lit up the event on Monday with a nine dart finish in the form of Ryan Searle.
Humphries has looked very good in this tournament so far and having made the semi-final here a year ago he is clearly very comfortable on this stage and looks like he’ll be tough to beat. It has been a bit of a strange week at the office so far for Searle. He looked like doing damage to his hopes when he trailed Gian van Veen 4-0 in his opening match before pulling himself out of trouble to win 5-4. He then got walloped by Price so could easily have been out of the event but made it through courtesy of that nine darter and probably doesn’t have a huge amount to lose from here on in which makes him dangerous. He’ll need his best to win this match but he is in with a chance if he has it. I think Humphries will be tough to beat though but I respect the Searle scoring enough to watch this one rather than get too involved in it.
Tips
Back C.Dobey to win and most 180s for a 3/10 stake at 2.20 with Boylesports
Back him here:
Back G.Price (-1.5 legs) to beat G.Anderson for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with BetVictor
