The third round of the PDC World Darts Championship continues on Sunday afternoon when another three matches take place inside the Alexandra Palace in what would appear to be a very competitive session of arrers.
Such were the shocks in the previous round, there are only two seeds on show among the six players who are taking to the stage on Sunday afternoon with the UK Open champion Dimitri Van den Bergh the headline act.
Jeffrey de Graaf vs Paolo Nebrida
The opening match of the day presents a massive opportunity for two outsiders to make it through to the last 16 where Michael van Gerwen will be waiting for the winner when Jeffrey de Graaf takes on the Filipino qualifier Paolo Nebrida.
These two men pulled off huge shocks in the previous round. De Graaf took care of Gary Anderson in straight sets while Nebrida saw off Ross Smith without dropping a set. The key to both wins was some pretty insane checking out percentages. De Graff hit 75% of his doubles while Nebrida hit 82%. Those numbers aren’t sustainable so this one might come down to who gets as close to their number as possible in this match. Nebrida actually scored a little better than de Graaf over more legs in the last round so that bodes well. The other thing to factor in here is de Graaf won’t ever have been a 4/11 favourite to reach the last 16 of a tournament of this magnitude before. It all points to Nebrida being a bit of value to me here, especially with his more pedestrian pace unlikely to give Graaf the rhythm that Anderson provided him with. I’m not going to go mad here but Nebrida is a shade big to ignore here.
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Kevin Doets vs Krzysztof Ratajski
The second match of the afternoon offers up another huge chance for the two competitors on show to make the last 16 when Kevin Doets goes up against Krzysztof Ratajski in a clash which should have been pitting Michael Smith against the Polish star.
Doets didn’t read that particular script as he took care of Smith and he’ll fancy his chances of coming out on top here. Ratajski saw off Alexis Toylo in good style in the previous round where he averaged 115 in the fourth set of that match and if he plays that well here then he would be a rightful favourite. Doets got rid of Smith in an absolute cracker which saw him average 112.29 for his opening nine darts and if he can score like that here he will have every chance of progressing. He will need to lift his 32% checkout rate though but that might be doable if he earns more pressure-free shots at a double. Ratajski has won their two previous meetings though and I think his leg on leg consistency will get it done here but at 4/6 he’s a little skinny for my liking in a match which could easily go to a deciding set.
Dimitri Van den Bergh vs Callan Rydz
The final match of the afternoon offers up the chance for the UK Open champion Dimitri Van den Bergh to get back to the last 16 when he takes on a Callan Rydz who has been one of the more impressive performers in the tournament to date.
Rydz averaged 107 in his opening match and although he wasn’t as good in beating Martin Schindler in the last round, he scored at a 113.33 scoring average and it was only the fact that he hit just 9/38 on the doubles that stopped him posting another 100+ average. Van den Bergh had a 96 average in the previous round which was his best TV performance for a while so he is worthy of respect. He won all three sets against Dylan Slevin in deciding legs so he held himself together pretty well throughout that match. I don’t think this one will have much between the two and missed doubles here or there, especially in the crucial fifth legs, could be the difference here. Rydz hit 60% of his doubles in the first round and beat Van den Bergh in their only meeting this year. If he can polish up on those doubles, and you expect he would have done and the fact he is a clear outsider in terms of the rankings for this one should help in that, then I think Rydz can pull off the upset against a Van den Bergh who just looks like a bloke under pressure every time he walks on a stage.
Tips
Back P.Nebrida to beat J.de Graaf for a 2/10 stake at 3.50 with Unibet
Back C.Rydz to beat D.Van den Bergh for a 3/10 stake at 2.10 with Boylesports
Back him here:
