The third round of the PDC World Darts Championship continues inside the Alexandra Palace on Thursday afternoon in a session where four different TV tournament winners all grace the stage looking for a spot in the last 16.
We have four of the biggest 180 hitters in the modern game on show in this afternoon session and a couple of competent challengers so with no match looking like a walkover on paper we should be in for a cracking few hours of darts.
Florian Hempel vs Stephen Bunting
The opening match of the afternoon will see one of two remaining German players left in the tournament taking to the stage when Florian Hempel goes up against the man who has posted the best average of the event to date in Stephen Bunting.
Bunting will be a pretty warm order for this match but Hempel has already come from the clouds to beat Dimitri Van den Bergh in this tournament and merits respect on that. Despite that performance though, I only see Bunting losing this if he misses a raft of doubles and even then they will need to be at key times. Bunting is scoring as well as I’ve seen him in his career and he looks full of confidence so I think he is going to be tough to beat here. I wouldn’t put anyone off taking Bunting’s 180 line as I think he’ll cover it but I’m already on him outright and to hit the most 180s in the tournament so I don’t need to get involved again.
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Joe Cullen vs Ryan Searle
The middle match of the afternoon could be the sleeper best tie of the round, which is saying something when we’ve already had a couple of great games, as the former champion of The Masters, Joe Cullen, meets the heavy scoring Ryan Searle.
These two men are both ranked in and around the teens of the world ranking so the winner here is going to boost their spot in the order of merit and have the chance to kick further up the pile with the really big money coming into play after this round. I think we are in for what could be an epic battle here. Both these men are seasoned campaigners on the big stage and they are both consistently heavy scorers so you would think this one will be settled by who takes out a big finish at the right time or who misses a double at the wrong one. I’m slightly surprised that Cullen is the outsider here but I don’t have him a clear enough winner to get involved so I’ll sit this one out as well.
Ross Smith vs Chris Dobey
The match everyone is waiting for in the third round concludes the afternoon session when the former European champion Ross Smith goes up against the man who started the year by winning The Masters in Chris Dobey.
These two men entered the tournament ranked 16 and 17 in the world so the winner here will be in that exclusive top 16 which gets them seeded into the major tournaments so there is plenty on the line here. Whoever comes out on top would also have the chance to make a bigger move over the remainder of the tournament too. I don’t see there being much between these two men but it would be stupid to think there aren’t going to be 180s. Both are comfortable and competent 180 hitters and in this round last year Smith was involved in a game which had 31 180s in it. I don’t expect as many as that here but I do think Smith hits more than 8.5 of them. He hit seven in four sets in beating Niels Zonneveld in the previous round and you’ve got to think he will have another couple of sets on top of that to find two more here. Smith is a relentless 180 hitter and I would be surprised if he doesn’t register nine more of them. We’ve already seen lesser 180 hitters in Scott Williams, Martin Schindler and Rob Cross reach double figures in this round while Jeffrey de Graaf, Luke Littler and Michael van Gerwen all hit eight. This line feels at least one too low to me.
Tips
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