The second evening of action at the PDC World Darts Championship takes place inside Alexandra Palace on Friday when three more first round matches are played out as well as the third of the second round games.
The beaten finalist of last year, Michael Smith, is the seeded player on show over the course of the night but even he might be overshadowed as the ladies superstar Beau Greaves potentially takes her career to the next level.
Rowby-John Rodriguez vs Lourence Ilagan
The opening match of the night sees two entertaining players taking to the stage as Rowby-John Rodriguez, who could very quickly progress into a dark horse in this thing, takes on the Philippines star Lourence Ilagan.
We saw some pretty average fayre in the opening session of the day but that shouldn’t be the case over the course of the evening and this should be a great way to start. I made the case for liking the Austrian in the quarter previews and I certainly haven’t changed my mind on that front but if Ilagan turns up with his best form on show then he is capable of making this close. I expect Rodriguez to win but I think the odds look about right in this one so I’m happy to let my bet on Rodriguez to take up my interest in this one.
William O’Connor vs Beau Greaves
The second match of the evening is the one which will be the most anticipated one in this session of play as Beau Greaves makes her PDC World Championship debut. Nobody wanted to draw her just because of the hype she brings but William O’Connor is the unfortunate man who has to take her on.
Greaves has the potential to be special. She won one of her Women’s Series matches with a 107 average and if she has sets like that here then O’Connor is in trouble but Greaves might have landed the wrong opponent too because O’Connor is solid, doesn’t really do much wrong and plays the board not everything going on around him. There is certainly a case for Greaves to be value at 2/1, especially if she has her best stuff with her but at the same time she won a number of matches in the World Masters last week with a low 80 average. That isn’t getting the job done here. Greaves is dangerous but I don’t think she’ll win. I expect O’Connor to edge this one but I’m in no rush to wade into him at 1/3.
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Keegan Brown vs Florian Hempel
The last of the first round matches over the course of the evening is one of the few where the international qualifier is higher ranked on the PDC Order of Merit than the pro tour qualifier as Keegan Brown faces a man four spots above him on the rankings in Florian Hempel.
Brown won a floor tournament back in August but either side of that has done precious little hence why he is ranked 64 in the world. To be fair, since he announced himself on this stage 12 months ago when he took Dimitri Van den Bergh out in the second round before going down to Raymond Smith in the last 16. He did come through the European Super League to qualify for this tournament though and won a lot of matches in that competition which should at least have boosted his confidence heading in here. Brown didn’t qualify for this last year and went out in the second round in the two years prior to that so he doesn’t have the best memories of this stage. I think the 8/11 on the German to progress here is a fair price.
Michael Smith vs Nathan Rafferty
The one second round match on the evening sees the 2022 finalist and recent Grand Slam champion Michael Smith going up against one of the winners from the opening night in the form of the Northern Irish youngster Nathan Rafferty.
Smith is expected to go very deep in this tournament now that he has won a TV title and he has an immediate chance to lay a marker down but Rafferty was solid in his win over Jermaine Wattimena where he handled some pressure situations very well for someone so young and now that he has got his first win on this stage under his belt he could be forgiven for thinking he has nothing to lose here. He’ll need to be at his very best to win this but Smith still misses enough doubles to keep an opponent interested. I expect Smith to win this but I’m happy to take a watching brief on him.
Tips
Back F.Hempel to beat K.Brown for a 3/10 stake at 1.73 with BetVictor
Back him here:
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