The PDC World Darts Championship comes out of the Christmas break with a double session of action on Monday as the third round of the tournament gets underway. The darts begins with a competitive looking afternoon inside Alexandra Palace.
We are up to the best of seven sets now which means that we have lost a match from each session. That means we have three matches to enjoy and get stuck into in the afternoon with places in the last 16 and some decent bunce at stake.
Ross Smith vs Dirk van Duijvenbode
The first match of the last 16 sees two players who have had perfectly acceptable campaigns in 2021 without being special on show when Ross Smith takes on the former World Grand Prix finalist Dirk van Duijvenbode in the top quarter of the draw. The winner here could be on a collision course with the defending champion Gerwyn Price in the last 16.
Plenty of bookmakers can’t split these two players and I guess if you are going on their year to date then that is perfectly understandable. If you were to base your selection on their career so far you would probably take the Dutchman but I’m one for betting on the here and now and what we’ve seen recently, as in so far in this tournament and it is Smith who has the more upside to me. Van Duijvenbode looked like a man carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders when he outlasted Boris Koltsov in the second round and unless there is a dramatic improvement I think he goes here. The problem with expecting that elevation in his game is that he hasn’t really played that well on TV all year. Smith was terrible in his first round win over Jeff Smith but I believe that was the burden of expectation. He was so much better in beating a Stephen Bunting who came surging at him, scoring well and checking out well. There was a composure in that win which I didn’t see from van Duijvenbode so I’ll take the steadier Englishman over the passionate Dutchman.
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Michael Smith vs William O’Connor
The second match of the afternoon sees Michael Smith in an unusual afternoon slot when he looks to make the last 16 once again when he takes on the Irish World Cup star William O’Connor with the winner potentially progressing to face Jonny Clayton in the last 16.
Smith delivered the performance of the first round in terms of the average and the sheer quality which was visible to the eye without having the numbers to back it up. He will be looking for something similar here but we see so often that it is hard for a player to peak twice in successive matches. He will be hoping that the week or so between drinks will allow him to build back up to his peak. It will be interesting to see what he faces from O’Connor here. He was slightly better than average in seeing off Dan Lauby in the first round but clearly he got dragged down by the struggles of Glen Durrant in the second. You would imagine we’ll get the best of O’Connor but I still don’t expect that to be enough to win this. That is reflected in the odds though.
Florian Hempel vs Raymond Smith
The afternoon concludes with the two surprise packages of the tournament so far meeting in what is a huge match for both of them when Florian Hempel takes on the Australian player Raymond Smith for the right to take on Steve Lennon or Mervyn King in the last 16.
Nobody likes to get too far ahead of themselves in these things but there could be a quarter final spot up for grabs for the winner of this match and that brings with it a nice £50,000 so I think it is entirely relevant to suggest this is the biggest clash in the career of both men. Hempel delivered a performance even he might not have known he had in the second round when he beat Dimitri Van den Bergh with some solid scoring and 25% on his doubles. Smith didn’t need to be that good to beat a Devon Petersen who is clearly having all kinds of issues at the minute. Given that, he deserves credit for averaging 93.25 in those circumstances. That suggests this one should be quite close and it might come down to finishing. That might give Hempel the edge but I’m always wary of backing a favourite who is new to that pressure on these big stages. I am happy to leave this one alone.
Tips
Back R.Smith to beat D.van Duijvenbode for a 3/10 stake at 1.91 with Coral
Back him here:
