The opening night of The Masters sees the players ranked outside the top eight in the world rankings taking to the oche in Milton Keynes looking to win a first round clash and set up a meeting with a seeded player on Saturday.
Most of the players on show on Friday night will be beginning their 2023 campaign with the odd exception and while we have to wait until Saturday for the real star names to enter the fray, there are plenty of competent dartists on show to open up the event.
First Four Matches
The action begins with two power scorers taking to the stage when Ryan Searle goes up against the man who will be determined to go one better than he did last year in Dave Chisnall, who lost in the final a year ago. When they are done James Wade will be back on the big stage for the first time since that very disappointing World Championship defeat to Jim Williams. Callaz Rydz will be the man looking to take care of him. Dirk van Duijvenbode is third onto the stage. He meets the number one from Poland in Krysztof Ratajski before we head to the halfway mark when practice partners Nathan Aspinall and Stephen Bunting battle it out.
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Later Four Matches
There is a standout clash in the opening round of the tournament and it comes along in the first game of the second half of the evening when the former World Matchplay champion Dimitri Van den Bergh goes up against the two-time world champion Gary Anderson. Jose de Sousa will be looking for a big 2023 and he’ll look to start that in style against Gabriel Clemens who will be buoyed by his run to the last four of the World Championship. Joe Cullen begins the defence of his title in the penultimate match of the night when he takes on Chris Dobey and the first round concludes with Damon Heta facing Ross Smith.
Betting
I’m not a massive one for betting on these first round matches which are the best of 11 but two bets do jump off the page at me here. I’m far from convinced that James Wade will care much for this weekend and wouldn’t be at all surprised if Callan Rydz does a bit of a job on him, Even if Wade does care for this weekend there is no guarantee that he beats a man who I am expecting to be right up for this after a poor finish to 2022. Rydz is likely to outscore Wade in this match so then it comes down to whether he hits a decent level of his doubles. If he does then he certainly has a huge chance but Wade hasn’t been completely clinical for a while now and feels vulnerable in an event which might not mean much to him.
The other bet that I like comes in the final match of the evening where Ross Smith goes up against Damon Heta. It won’t surprise regular readers that I’m taking Heta on here. His TV record is terrible and I’m not convinced he should be the favourite here. Smith has clearly taken a lot of confidence from his win in the European Championship last year and we saw that at the World Championship where he was ploughing in the 180s like a lunatic until he came up short against Dirk van Duijvenbode in a match he will know he should have won. That scoring power combined with a much more relaxed attitude can serve him well against a bloke who flatters to deceive on the box far too much for my liking.
Tips
Back C.Rydz to beat J.Wade for a 3/10 stake at 2.30 with Coral
Back R.Smith to beat D.Heta for a 3/10 stake at 2.00 with BetVictor
Back him here:
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