It is semi-final night at the PDC World Darts Championship on Monday evening when both matches take place inside Alexandra Palace on a night where we will find out which two men will compete in the final on Tuesday.
We saw a huge upset in the quarter finals on Sunday but we are left with four players who are playing great darts and with the carrot being dangled for each of them on show we should get a good night of arrers.
Gabriel Clemens vs Michael Smith
The opening semi-final of the night should have contained the world number on Gerwyn Price but Gabriel Clemens didn’t read that script and instead it will be him who lines up against a Michael Smith who is looking to reach the final for a second straight season.
Clemens didn’t just beat Price, he took him to the cleaners in one of the best performances of his career. He has that age old issue of having to back up the performance of his life the next day and if he was able to do that regularly he wouldn’t be sat at 25 in the world rankings. What Clemens needs to do is ensure he can play his best in enough batches to be competitive here because it is unlikely he’ll be as good as he was against Price. Smith has played like a man who has had the pressure of the world on his shoulders this week, which is understandable given the expectations he had when he arrived. He has come through his part of the draw comfortably enough but with the exception of a couple of sets against Cullen in the last 16, we’ve seen nothing of the heavy bursts of scoring we usually do and you would imagine he’ll need to find those over the next 48 hours if he is to win the title. He is a warm favourite here but he has so much pressure on him I don’t really want to back him but I’m not convinced Clemens will be able to go again either so I’ll watch this one rather than bet on it.
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Dimitri Van den Bergh vs Michael van Gerwen
The second semi-final sees two seasoned class acts at this level going at it for the other place in the final when the former World Matchplay champion Dimitri Van den Bergh takes on the former winner here in Michael van Gerwen.
Van Den Bergh has come through to the semi-final without always playing his best darts but what I do like about him is the assurance he has offered up on the stage. He didn’t come in here with his best TV form but he has done the right things at the right time and the one thing he hasn’t done is spurn too many chances. That is significant because if he can hold himself together on the finishing then he has the scoring power to keep van Gerwen honest. Both Chris Dobey and Dirk van Duijvenbode have had that scoring power but neither of them could finish their dinner so if the Belgian number one is at an acceptable level on his finishing then van Gerwen might need to be at his very best to come through here. Van Gerwen has played well in this tournament, there is no getting away from that, but in five sets DvD missed 17 darts at double against him and in four sets Dobey missed 11 so opponents are getting chances. Van den Bergh is checking out on well over 50% of his turns when he has a double and if he does that here it will keep him close whether he wins or not. Van den Bergh has gone toe-to-toe with MVG in big matches a few times over the last year or two and I expect him to do the same again. He’s getting a set too many on the handicap in my eyes.
Tips
Back D.Van den Bergh (+3.5 sets) to beat M.van Gerwen for a 3/10 stake at 1.91 with William Hill
Back him here:
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