The PDC World Darts Championship continues on Wednesday evening when another three third round matches take place inside Alexandra Palace in London as spots in the last 16 of the huge event are on the line.
There might only be three matches over the course of the evening but we have both of the finalists from last year and the World Youth champion all on show on what could turn into quite a tasty evening of arrer flinging.
Matt Campbell vs Luke Littler
There will be a lot of attention on the opening match of the night as the 16-year-old Luke Littler takes to the stage once again when he goes up against the Canadian thrower Matt Campbell in an intriguing looking contest.
Littler took the tournament by storm in the first round when he averaged more than 106 in beating Christian Kist but was probably fortunate that Andrew Gilding had a mare on his doubles in the second round else he might have been watching the remainder of the tournament at home. Campbell has gone the other way. He struggled a bit in his opening round, albeit with the caveat of having never won on this stage before in play. With the confidence of a win behind him he looked much better against James Wade and showed he can deliver the goods in a tight contest. That is something Littler hasn’t gone this week and it will be interesting to see how he goes should Campbell get very close. I think the Canadian will fancy the job here. He averaged 96 against Wade and if he can average that here then I think he’ll run Littler close as I don’t see one of those 106 averages coming again over a match of this length. You can make a case for both men winning this so rather than take the choice I’m happy to back over 5.5 sets in this one.
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Michael van Gerwen vs Richard Veenstra
The first of the finalists from the previous World Championship taking to the stage on Wednesday night is Michael van Gerwen and he will look to make it back to the last 16 when he goes up against his fellow Dutch player Richard Veenstra.
Veenstra has definitely impressed in this tournament so far, looking in good order in beating Ben Robb in the opening round before dispatching of Kim Huybrechts in the second round without even losing a leg to the Belgian. At the very least you would imagine he will fancy a shot at being competitive in a match where he doesn’t have much to lose considering he has already bolstered his world ranking with the two wins he has achieved. Michael van Gerwen looked good himself in seeing off Keane Barry in his opening match and you wouldn’t think he is going to slow down here. I think Veenstra will be competitive here but it might only take a missed double or two for this to be the difference between 4-0 and 4-2 so I don’t really want to rely on doubles being missed or hit so I’ll leave this alone.
Michael Smith vs Madars Razma
The last match of the night sees Michael Smith continuing his title defence when he goes up against the Latvian number one Madars Razma in a match where you would expect the champion to come through but which could be a banana skin.
The first reason why this could be a banana skin is because he hasn’t played for 12 days which is a long period of time. The other is because we haven’t really seen Smith at his best since he won the title, largely because of a change of darts but also the expectation of carrying the world champion tag. He was pushed close by Kevin Doets in the second round and that will give Razma hope of a major upset. Razma will probably only perform in bursts in this match but if those bursts come at the right time he could cause Smith some issues. Whether he has enough of them to win I have my doubts but this could easily go six sets or more if Smith isn’t at the levels he showed last year. The bet I like though is for Razma to hit more than 2.5 180s. This line probably isn’t as low as it looks because he visits the bottom of the board more than anyone in the game but in four sets against Mike de Decker he pinned three maximums and he’ll definitely get that many sets here if not more. I think the scoring of Smith will be such that Razma can’t go chasing trebles everywhere and that should see the Latvian cover this line. He covered it in the previous round and hit four in 11 legs in defeat to Michael van Gerwen at the Players Championship Finals last month. This line is low enough that in a match I expect to be more competitive than the odds suggest can be covered.
Tips
Back M.Campbell vs L.Littler – Over 5.5 sets for a 3/10 stake at 1.91 with Betway
Back M.Razma – Over 2.5 180s for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Boylesports
Back him here:
