Thursday night is quarter final night at the World Grand Prix at the Citywest Hotel in Dublin and by the end of the night we will know the four men who will battle it out for the title and the chunky first prize as the weekend draws in.
The second round was another round full of shocks in this tournament and with that we are left with just two of the eight seeds who began the competition so all eight players left will fancy their chances of going all the way.
The quarter finals begin with possibly the pick of the matches as Ian White takes on Robert Thornton. White took care of the world champion Gary Anderson in the previous round in one of the best second round matches ever seen on the Dublin stage.
Thornton struggled in the early stages of his win over Justin Pipe but when he got in front he ran away with it. It has to be said Pipe was nowhere near his best so Thornton might have been flattered slightly by the margin of victory.
Both men have been impressive at different stages of this tournament so I’m expecting a tight match here. The match odds look about right and given that I’m on White outright I will give this one a miss from a betting point of view.
Game two is the battle of the giant killers. Mensur Suljovic has beaten James Wade and Simon Whitlock in the tournament so far and now he faces Vincent van der Voort who has seen off Phil Taylor and Terry Jenkins.
Both men have been really good in this tournament so far. Suljovic has barely missed that double 14 throughout the event while van der Voort looks to have all aspects of his game in good working order so this one should be another tight match.
Suljovic leads their head to head 5-1 and I don’t think that is too big a surprise. Van der Voort is a fast thrower who likes to get a rhythm going but he certainly won’t get one from Suljovic and that probably equates much of that record between the two. I think the lack of pace will play a part here so I’m with the Austrian in this one.
Two men not expected to be in the quarter finals meet in the penultimate match of the night. That sees Mark Webster taking on Jelle Klaasen in a battle of two former Lakeside champions.
Webster has already seen off two former world champions in Stephen Bunting and Adrian Lewis and he’ll be targeting a third here. Klaasen has beaten Brendan Dolan and Dave Chisnall so both men will be confident going into this match.
It has been a while since we’ve seen Webster at this level and you get the feeling he is playing like a man with nothing to lose. In fairness Jelle Klaasen has let the tungsten flow in this tournament so I’m finding this as a hard one to call. My gut feeling is that Klaasen will win but Webster won’t go down without a fight so I can’t find a bet there.
Michael van Gerwen must’ve looked at this tournament now and thought this is his to lose. He faces Jamie Lewis in the quarter final and if he progresses from that he will face Mark Webster or Jelle Klaasen for a place in the final.
MVG hasn’t been anywhere near his best in this tournament so far but maybe that draw will ensure he ups his game now. He’ll need to be near his best because Jamie Lewis is showing no fear and plenty of heart and fight. It would be a major upset if Lewis wins here but I see him putting up a decent fight so I don’t really see a bet there.
I’m effectively on Lewis at 33/1 with my bet on him to win the quarter so I’ll sit back and hope van Gerwen has a mare on his doubles and that the Welshman takes advantage.
Back M.Suljovic to beat V.van der Voort for a 4/10 stake at 1.91 with Betfred
Blog darts YTD: +29.79pts
