We have a double session of action at the Winmau World Masters inside the Marshall Arena in Milton Keynes on Saturday with the entire second round being played out in the afternoon and then the evening sessions.
At the end of the day we will have the quarter final line up confirmed and with the majority of the fancied runners making it through the first round unscathed we are going to see plenty of good matches throughout the course of Saturday, especially with the format now the best of seven sets.
Afternoon Session
The organisers have kept the sessions filled by one half of the draw and in the afternoon it is the top half which will be on show once again. We get underway with the man who dumped out Rob Cross on the opening night in William O’Connor. He takes on Danny Noppert for a place in the last eight. When they are done two men who will have their eye on the title this week will be on show as Damon Heta faces off against Gerwyn Price. The third match of the afternoon sees Stephen Bunting continuing his title defence when he meets a Peter Wright who was impressive in the opening round. The afternoon session concludes with the world number one Luke Humphries going up against a potentially dangerous Josh Rock.
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Evening Session
It is the bottom half of the draw that is on show on Saturday evening and Jonny Clayton will be given the honour of leading the action off when he takes on Ryan Searle in what looks like a cracking match. Cameron Menzies put that World Championship meltdown behind him to beat Dave Chisnall in the first round and he’ll be looking to reach the last eight when he goes up against a Nathan Aspinall who might be preparing for the Premier League in his mind. The penultimate match of the evening will see the world champion Luke Littler taking on the former winner of this tournament in James Wade before two class acts conclude the second round when Michael van Gerwen takes on Dimitri Van den Bergh.
Betting
I’m still getting a feel for how the big hitters are going in an event which I initially thought the early round format would cause a number of shocks but we haven’t really seen that so far. That makes me think we won’t get them and a big name champion awaits us on Sunday. In terms of Saturday though, the bet I like comes in the evening session where Cameron Menzies takes on Nathan Aspinall where the preference is for the latter to come through with a bit to spare.
These two men have met four times in all and Aspinall has won the lot. That doesn’t massively surprise me but I think he has even more of an edge between the two on the big stage. Menzies did us and our followers a good turn on Friday night when he came through against Dave Chisnall but you couldn’t say he looked particularly comfortable on the stage and an average around the 88 mark won’t cut it in this tournament for much longer. Aspinall looked very good on Friday night, scoring well and finishing consistently and even 90% of that showing should be enough here. I put faith in Menzies looking good on the stage on Friday and was fortunate enough that he won but he just doesn’t look settled on it. Aspinall does and I think he can win this no worse than 4-2.
Tips
Back N.Aspinall (-1.5 sets) to beat C.Menzies for a 3/10 stake at 2.20 with Sky Bet
