The evening session at the PDC World Darts Championship sees the second round of the competition continuing with four matches as eight players look to ensure a return to Alexandra Palace after the Christmas break.
Some big names take to the stage over the course of the evening looking to book their spot in the third round of the tournament where the format increases the event elevates in status, so we should be in for a great night of darts.
Vincent van der Voort vs Adam Hunt
The opening match of the night sees Vincent van der Voort taking to the stage for the first time looking to follow his good friend Michael van Gerwen into the third round. In order to get there the popular Dutchman needs to take care of Adam Hunt.
Hunt came through his first round match against Boris Krcmar in decent enough style with some good scoring but he still didn’t average over 90 and you would think that will be a minimum requirement to have any chance in this match. Van der Voort was averaging in the very high 90s in his run to the quarter final of the Players Championship Finals and while he wasn’t as good in that last eight clash with Jonny Clayton that was the day the storm was blowing through affecting the conditions. In the main van der Voort is a heavy scorer so unless he has a mare on the doubles, which doesn’t tend to happen, I expect him to have too much for Hunt here.
Michael Smith vs Ron Meulenkamp
The second match up on the stage on Tuesday evening sees the former finalist Michael Smith beginning his campaign when he takes on a Ron Meulenkamp who eased past Lisa Ashton in the first round and will be hoping to pull off an upset which could revive his career.
Although he took care of Ashton in the first round, sadly the former women’s world champion just didn’t show up on the night and an 87.32 average with zero 180s and 29% checkout percentage just isn’t going to get it done here. There might well be natural improvement in the Dutchman because he isn’t playing a woman here and he isn’t the favourite, both factors which still bring their own pressures to those not used to it. This match has to be on Smith. He lost at this stage last year to Jason Lowe but he looks in a much better touch here and if he is solid enough on his doubles he should run out a very comfortable winner. The odds reflect that though so I’ll let Smith win.
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Dimitri Van den Bergh vs Florian Hempel
The best match of the evening could well be the third one going into the stage when the former World Matchplay champion Dimitri Van den Bergh takes on the rising star out of Germany in Florian Hempel who has shot to prominence over the last couple of months.
That all started when he took care of Peter Wright at the European Championship and he showed signs in his win over Martin Schindler in the first round here that he is a player for the big stage. He will need to find more to compete with Van den Bergh here but he isn’t playing a friend here so there will be some natural improvement in him. I’m not convinced it will be enough without some help from the Belgian though. We know Van den Bergh is a class act and he has a pretty good record on this stage overall. I’m always a little wary of these seeded players coming in cold against a player who has already performed though so I’ll just hope he comes through to strengthen his outright chances as I’m already invested in him to win the tournament.
Devon Petersen vs Raymond Smith
The final match of the night might well be the most intriguing clash of the evening session when the South African ace Devon Petersen takes on the Australian qualifier Raymond Smith for a place in the third round of the competition.
12 months ago Petersen was a genuine outsider for this tournament but that isn’t the case this season. He arrives here having won just one of his last 15 matches in all events and some of the players who have beaten him includes John Henderson, Boris Krcmar, Matt Edgar, Scott Waites, Andy Hamilton, Gavin Carlin and Maik Kuivenhoven – all way below him in the rankings. In his recent TV displays he hasn’t been averaging 90 and he looks like a man who has lost all of his confidence. Smith doesn’t have that issue. He is playing with confidence after a fine win over Jamie Hughes in the first round and that should have freed him up even more here. He scored very consistently and was excellent on his doubles, pinning 10 out of 17 attempts. Even when he scored well Petersen was never the most reliable finisher. Now he isn’t scoring as well he looks extremely vulnerable to me here.
Tips
Back V.Van der Voort (-1.5 sets) to beat A.Hunt for a 3/10 stake at 1.95 with Coral
Back him here:
Back R.Smith to beat D.Petersen for a 3/10 stake at 2.00 with BetVictor
Back him here:
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