The opening night of the Winmau World Masters sees the first round of the top half of the draw being played out on what should be a decent night of Darts inside the Marshall Arena in Milton Keynes.
With the top half on shoe on Thursday evening it means the world number one Luke Humphries and the defending champion Stephen Bunting will headline the action on a night where Rob Cross, Gerwyn Price and Peter Wright all take to the stage to open their campaign.
First Four Matches
The newly revamped format will be tested out initially by Josh Rock who is the first seed onto the stage. He takes on a man who finished 2024 in very good form in Jermaine Wattimena before arguably the closest match on paper takes to the stage when Damon Heta meets the former European champion Ross Smith. Rob Cross will then look to build on his win at the Dutch Darts Masters last weekend when he goes up against William O’Connor before we reach the halfway point of the evening with Gerwyn Price looking to build on his good recent form when he goes up against the German qualifier Florian Hempel for a spot in the second round.
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Later Four Matches
The second part of the evening will see Peter Wright looking to pick up another win on the big stage when he faces off against the Dutch ace Kevin Doets for the second week in succession after the outsider beat the former world champion in the Dutch Darts Masters last week. The world number one then gets his campaign underway when he faces the former winner Joe Cullen before Stephen Bunting begins his title defence when he takes on the last man into the field in the form of the qualifier William Borland. The last match of the night might well be the best one as Danny Noppert takes on Michael Smith.
Betting
Kevin Doets beat Peter Wright in the Dutch Darts Masters last weekend and while he had the home crowd behind him there he still looks to be a bit of value to repeat the win here. He beat Wright 6-2 which was fairly comfortable and he was only 6/20 on the doubles in that match so there is more to come from the Dutchman, who showed when pushing Michael Smith all the way at the 2024 World Championship before beating him in the recent edition that he isn’t a respecter of reputation.
Wright is in a real slump in his game and while there was the sign of a return to form with that run at the World Championship, he laboured to a first round win in Bahrain before being soundly beaten in the semi-final and then Doets beat him in the first round last week where Wright averaged just 81 and change. He’ll probably play better than that here but this format isn’t one for a player who is low on confidence and under pressure to deliver. Doets can attack this tournament as a free hit having qualified for it on Wednesday and having faced the even more cutthroat best of three sets in this format and come through he should be well drilled to win this one.
Tips
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