After a dramatic day full of shocks and surprises in the Players Championship Finals on Saturday we are down to the quarter finals of the competition. They take place in a busy afternoon session of play in Minehead on Sunday before the tournament concludes on Sunday evening.
Saturday was a bad day for the world champion Gary Anderson. He admitted himself he was useless in a 10-4 defeat to Daryl Gurney but he wasn’t the only big name to crash out of the event. James Wade and Peter Wright were also surprise casualties in a destructive day for the top seeds.
All that means we are left with four quarter finals that not many will have predicted before the tournament began but it is what it is. The first match sees Mensur Suljovic taking on Ian White.
I’m really looking forward to watching this match. This could be a really good test for just where Suljovic is now. He’s come past an out of form player and a rhythm player so far but now he faces a really solid, in form opponent who edged out Gerwyn Price in a thriller in the last round.
White gives nothing away so Suljovic will have to earn this win. I think he’s playing well enough to win this match and if he does win it he has to be talked about as a top level player now. Experience could be crucial and White has that.
I’m not going to bet on the match outcome itself but I do like the 180s line in this match. White is underrated as a 180 hitter while Suljovic’s grouping has improved so much that he’s no stranger to ploughing in the maximums. I’m guessing the 7.5 line has been set up on the past but given that they hit 12 between them on Saturday I’m happy to take the overs here.
Simon Whitlock delivered a strong comeback to beat Peter Wright on Saturday and was pretty emotional afterwards and he’ll have needed to regain those emotions ahead of a clash with Adrian Lewis.
Lewis is just coming back to form nicely at the minute and this could be the weekend that catapults him back into the winning majors form of a couple of years ago. I expect Lewis to win this and if Whitlock is a bit flat Lewis will have plenty to spare here but I’ll give Whitlock enough respect by leaving the game alone with the lines about right.
There rarely seems to be an ITV4 tournament go by these days where Dave Chisnall and Michael van Gerwen don’t meet at this stage and they go at it again on Sunday.
I’m not going to dwell too much on this match. We’ve seen it so often in the past we know how it will go. You have to favour van Gerwen to win but whenever these two collide 180s come by the barrel load. I’m expecting them to keep on coming here.
Finally the two surprise packages of the tournament meet in the last of the quarter finals when Daryl Gurney, conqueror of Kim Huybrechts and Gary Anderson thus far, takes on Benito van de Pas who has seen off Stephen Bunting and James Wade.
Both men are playing well. Van de Pas was exceptional in his win over Wade but Gurney matched that effort in his win over Huybrechts. If I was pushed I’d probably take Gurney on the value side of things but both had big wins on Saturday and sometimes it is hard to get back up after wins like that so I’ll sit and watch this and see how it plays out.
Back I.White vs M.Suljovic – Over 7.5 180s for a 4/10 stake at 1.73 with Paddy Power
Back M.van Gerwen vs D.Chisnall – Over 10.5 180s for a 5/10 stake at 1.73 with Skybet
