We are counting down the hours until the start of the PDC World Darts Championship and while we wait for the oche to be toed for the first time inside Alexandra Palace this year on Friday we have another quarter of the draw to look at.
The focus for this preview will turn to the third quarter where the former champion and beaten finalist last year, Michael van Gerwen, is a headline act in a section that many expect him to dominate on his way to the latter stages.
Draw
(2) Michael van Gerwen v Keane Barry/Reynaldo Rivera
(31) Kim Huybrechts v Richard Veenstra/Ben Robb
(15) Dimitri Van den Bergh v Dylan Slevin/Florian Hempel
(18) Stephen Bunting v Ryan Joyce/Alex Spellman
(7) Danny Noppert v Scott Williams/Haruki Muramatsu
(26) Martin Schindler v Jermaine Wattimena/Fallon Sherrock
(10) Damon Heta v Martin Lukeman/Haupai Puha
(23) Josh Rock v Luke Woodhouse/Berry van Peer
Preview
As with the other two quarters, I’ve chopped the draw up into a red and green half. Michael van Gerwen will be expected to dominate the red half but in Kim Huybrechts, Dimitri Van den Bergh and Stephen Bunting he hasn’t exactly landed himself in a friendly part of the draw. You could make a case for all four seeds in that section but before you do there are a few players within the qualifiers who are perfectly competent, not least Ryan Joyce who looked in fair touch at the Players Championship Finals while Richard Veenstra and Florian Hempel are two solid campaigners from Europe.
The green part of the draw looks completely different to the red one. The four seeds in this mini-section all look vulnerable to me and you can make an argument against all of them. Danny Noppert is the man expected to make it through to the quarter final but in five attempts he has never been past the third round here. Martin Schindler has been going well away from the stage for a while but doesn’t have the portfolio on the stage. Damon Heta and Josh Rock will certainly fancy their chances. Fallon Sherrock will get plenty of attention in this section while Scott Williams and Luke Woodhouse could be dangerous.
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Betting
This is another quarter where I already have a skin in the game with Stephen Bunting being my other outright bet for the tournament. I probably wasn’t going to play the red half of the draw anyway given the strength of the four seeds in it but I’m happy to let the bet on Bunting ride, especially as I’m on him for four places anyway so I’m effectively already getting paid out on him to win the quarter as it stands. I will grab a bet from the green section though.
Regular readers of my darts stuff will know I am no fan of Damon Heta but I think he is the seed with fewer evils in the green zone. Noppert just doesn’t seem to perform in this environment and Martin Schindler misses too many doubles for me. A month or so ago I would have looked at Josh Rock but the way he capitulated in that Grand Slam of Darts quarter final when the finish line was ready to be run over puts me way off him. To be fair to Heta, he is slowly taking his game onto the big stage. All his pre-match walk on antics do nothing for confidence but he does have a win over Michael van Gerwen at the Grand Slam on his CV and in the last three Players Championship events he made two semis and a final. You can get 7/2 on Heta to get to the quarter final and with doubts over the other seeds that looks good to me.
Tips
Back D.Heta to make quarter final from Section 6 for a 3/10 stake at 4.50 with Betfair
