The third round of the PDC World Darts Championship concludes and the last 16 gets underway on Monday evening as some big names take to the Alexandra Palace stage looking to move a step closer to competing for £1 million on Saturday night.
We have one match to conclude the third round in this evening session and then the remainder of the night will be formed of the first two games in the last 16 and with the defending champion, a former winner and four talented dartists on show, the quality should be very high.
Josh Rock vs Callan Rydz
The last of the third round matches might be one of the best of them, certainly on paper, as the World Cup winner Josh Rock takes on a man with a very good record in this tournament in Callan Rydz in what should be a very watchable game.
Rock had an indifferent first round match against Gemma Hayter in a clash where he had nothing to gain and in many ways the same can be said of his game in the second round too where Joe Comito was never likely to put up much of a challenge and he duly didn’t. That makes it slightly harder to assess the form of Rock but we know he is a top class talent. Rydz has been challenged in this event. Daryl Gurney took him to a final set in the last round where the ‘Riot’ had a scoring average of 102.29 and an overall average of 96.59, which over five sets isn’t too shabby at all. I wouldn’t be surprised to see an absolute barrel load of 180s in this match. We would need Rock to up his scoring for the 15.5 180 line to be covered but you would have to think that put under a serious challenge he’ll be up for the battle and it wouldn’t be the biggest surprise in the world were this to go the full seven sets. Six is particularly likely given that their last two meetings have finished 6-5 and 6-4 on the pro tour. Six sets with the scoring power these two have, evidenced by Rydz hitting eight in that five set win over Gurney, should see the 180 line sail through but I suspect we’ve every chance with five sets too. I do think we’ll see at least six sets but the better bet might be the 180s as that could come in were one of them to win 4-1 whereas the over 5.5 sets wouldn’t. I don’t see this being won 4-0 so I’ll take the 180s here.
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James Hurrell vs Ryan Searle
The opening match of the last 16 sees two players who were not seeded to reach this stage battling it out for a quarter final spot when James Hurrell looks to take care of a third straight seed when he goes up against the impressive Ryan Searle.
When you consider that he has taken care of Dirk van Duijvenbode and Stephen Bunting in the last two rounds, there is a case to be made that Hurrell has done the most damage in the tournament to date and he’ll be eyeing up a winnable quarter final against either Jonny Clayton or Andreas Harrysson. Searle will be hoping to snaffle that opportunity himself and he has been very impressive so far, winning his three matches without surrendering a single set. There is a case to be made that the Martin Schindler doubling handed Searle his third round match on a plate but then you can say the lack of Bunting scoring power did similar for Hurrell. The key thing here is both players look to be playing very well and that, along with the prize on offer, should make for a tight and lengthy affair. Those who have followed us throughout the tournament will already be on Searle to win this at a tasty 11/2 as we backed him to reach the quarter final among other bets. I still think he will but I think this one has 4-2 or 4-3 written all over it. I certainly wouldn’t put anyone off taking over 5.5 sets at around the 4/5 mark but I’ve got more than enough invested in Searle that I can leave this match alone and just cheer him on strongly.
Luke Littler vs Rob Cross
The final match of the night sees the defending champion taking on the former winner as the world number one Luke Littler goes up against a Rob Cross who has fallen down the rankings in recent times but who has the chance to make a massive move back up them if he can pull off the ultimate shock here.
Cross can go into this one with the freedom of having nothing to lose. Were the worst to happen here he has exceeded his ranking in the tournament so he can attack this looking for his best darts and if he has that then he can at least keep Littler honest and make him work for his win. That is pretty much how I see this one playing out. I think this will be the toughest test that Littler has had so far and I do expect him to drop a set or two in this one but ultimately I think he’ll do what is needed to get through in the end. It probably isn’t a surprise with Littler involved that it is the 180s which interests me here. The line is quite low at 13.5 here, which I suspect is because of the threat of a 4-0 Littler but these two met five times in the Premier League earlier in the year and Cross took two of them to a deciding match so there is nothing to suggest he can’t put a burst of three legs out of five together to take this to a fifth set. Even if he doesn’t, these two tend to combine nicely for 180s. In those five Premier League matches their combined 180 count was seven in 11 legs, seven in nine legs, 10 in eight legs, six in nine legs and eight in 11 legs. You’d have to think we’re going to get somewhere in the region of 18-20 legs as a minimum here so that should be plenty of time for the 180s to flow. Littler just hit nine in 15 legs in a match where he had no rhythm against Suljovic in the last round. Were he to do the same here we would need a combination of five from Cross or Littler adding to his in the remaining legs. I like over 13.5 180s here.
Tips
Back J.Rock vs C.Rydz – Over 15.5 180s for a 3/10 stake at 2.00 with Paddy Power
Back L.Littler vs R.Cross – Over 13.5 180s for a 3/10 stake at 2.10 with Bet365
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