We will determine the semi-final line up in the Grand Slam of Darts on Saturday evening when the last two quarter finals are played at the Wolverhampton Civic Hall.
The two matches in the session on Saturday are repeats of group matches from earlier in the tournament as Michael Smith plays Adrian Lewis and Michael van Gerwen faces Kim Huybrechts for the second successive year at this stage.
Michael Smith put in one of his best ever TV performances in the previous round against Dave Chisnall. Everyone thought Chisnall would outscore Smith but Smith slammed in nine 180s in a brilliant performance and he hit some big doubles too.
Adrian Lewis was made to work hard in the last round by Peter Wright but when push came to shove Jackpot had enough class to get the job done. Lewis lost to Smith in the group stage though so he knows he can’t take his opponent lightly here even allowing for the fact this is over the best of 31 legs now rather than nine.
I think this has all the makings of a great game. If Smith scores like he did against Chisnall then with the way he has finished in the tournament I don’t see him losing this. Lewis is full of class, fighting spirit and quality so Smith will never win this easily but I do think he can get out of the traps and get Lewis under pressure and then it will be down to whether he holds his nerve. At the price I’ll back him to get it done.
The second game is going to be played with some real emotion to it. Huybrechts is an emotional player at the best of times but he seems to get even more emotional when he plays van Gerwen but often it has the desired effect.
He doesn’t always beat his Dutch rival but he always plays well against him. He did beat him at this stage 12 months ago and rammed in a nine dart leg in the process so he has the confidence of knowing that he can do it.
Since then though all Huybrechts seems to do is bring out the very best of van Gerwen and if he does that here he’s got no chance. That’s no slight on the Belgian but nobody beats van Gerwen when the Dutch star is playing his best darts.
However this one ends and pans out I think we’ll get a really high quality game. They tend to bring that out of each other. The key thing to remember from a betting point of view is that van Gerwen doesn’t go easy on Kim anymore and that is important.
The two produced seven 180s in six legs in their group match earlier in the tournament and neither have gone backwards since so I’m expecting to see a lot of 180s here. Even if MVG runs away with this he won’t go away like say Taylor did against Thornton so we’re going to get a decent number of legs.
You can get even money on over 17.5 180s in this match and that looks perfectly attractive to me.
Back M.Smith to beat A.Lewis for a 4/10 stake at 2.40 with Boylesports
Back M.van Gerwen vs K.Huybrechts – Over 17.5 180s for a 5/10 stake at 2.00 with Boylesports
