The first Sunday of the PDC World Darts Championship sees another two sessions of action being played out inside the Alexandra Palace beginning with what looks like being a very tasty afternoon schedule of play.
The first round of the tournament continues in the early part of the afternoon and then the session concludes with the latest match from the second round on what should be a very competitive period of play.
Maik Kuivenhoven vs Ky Smith
The day begins with a clash between Maik Kuivenhoven and one of the younger players in the tournament in Ky Smith, who has already seen his dad make it into the second round of the event and will be looking to follow in his footsteps.
Huivenhoven has made improvements this year and we’ve seen him at a couple of TV events holding his own this term. He was terrible here last year though and we saw Ted Evetts struggle on a stage he has a poor record on during the session on Saturday night and a repeat of that is a concern. Smith did well to come through the Oceanic Masters to make it into this event. That is generally a decent form guide here but Covid made the entry list a little weaker than usual which is enough of a worry. He will also be making his TV debut in this match so there is enough reason to dodge this one.
Jason Heaver vs Gordon Mathers
The second match of the afternoon sees another Australian player taking to the stage when Gordon Mathers takes on the debutant Jason Heaver in what has the potential to be one of the closest matches of the entire first round.
Heaver is on debut despite being aged 47 and you would imagine if he was going to make it at this level he would have done it by now. That being said, he has qualified for this tournament through his results on the pro tour this season and that winning form shouldn’t go without acknowledgement. Mathers was a win away from coming through the qualifier to make it into this event. He beat Max Hopp on his way to his draw final at that event but lost to Nick Kenny. Kenny didn’t exactly frank that form on Saturday evening though which is a worry. Mathers does have experience of this stage, although his record on it isn’t great, but it is an advantage to have played here so I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Australian progress here but he isn’t much of a price.
Special Offer
OPEN AN ACCOUNT WITH 888SPORT AND BET £10 TO GET £30 IN FREE BETS PLUS A £10 CASINO BONUS! PERFECT OFFER TO USE ON THIS TOURNAMENT! CLICK THE IMAGE BELOW TO JOIN. USE CODE 30F. NEW ACCOUNTS ONLY. 18+ T&Cs apply (See image for significant terms). Gamble Aware.
Alan Soutar vs Diogo Portela
Another debutant at this event comes along in the last of the first round matches in this session as Alan Soutar meets the Brazilian star Diogo Portela who will be hoping to emulate his first round win here last year and set up a second round tie against Mensur Suljovic.
Soutar might be on debut here but he has played at the Lakeside in the past and has played on the main stage at the UK Open this season so he does have some TV action to speak of. Most of his best form came earlier in the season when he was a threat in the Players Championship events and then reached the last 16 of the UK Open. He did have a good run in one of the later Players Championship events to fine tune him nicely here. Portela may as well have been given a qualifying spot automatically here given the weakness of the South American qualifier he came through. His opponent in the final of that averaged just 63 so that was a waste of everyone’s time. Portela has been active in the Darts Live League online recently which is a positive, although he didn’t pull up many trees in that. I expect Soutar to win this fairly comfortably but I’m loathe to back anyone to win 3-0 in case he doesn’t have the throw in the first and third sets. Instead I’ll take under 15.5 legs as that gives us the potential for Portela to sneak a set in a match he’s otherwise dominated in.
Stephen Bunting vs Ross Smith
One of the better looking second round matches when the draw came out was the one which would involve Stephen Bunting and that rounds off the session on Sunday afternoon. He was always going to be challenged because he was getting the winner of the match between Ross Smith and Jeff Smith.
It turns out it is the former who will take on ‘The Bullet’ and he should give a good account of himself, a better one than he gave in that first round clash where Jeff Smith was so bad Ross Smith didn’t really need to come out of first gear. His form has generally been good this term though so he’s entitled to lay it down to Bunting. If you looked just at the results of Bunting you might be keen to take him on here but he’s playing so much better than his results suggest. He averaged well over 100 in defeat to Ryan Joyce in the Grand Slam and was 4-0 up on Gary Anderson in the Players Championship Finals before losing in a last leg. Over this distance I expect Bunting to get into his form and win but the prices are about right given that Smith has had a match on the stage.
Tips
Back A.Soutar vs D.Portela – Under 15.5 legs for a 3/10 stake at 1.80 with William Hill
Back it here:
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2021
