The second round of the World Matchplay tournament concludes inside the Winter Gardens in Blackpool on Wednesday evening when we find out who the four quarter finalists will be in the bottom half of the draw.
We have seen some excellent darts in this tournament already and the bigger names are beginning to gather. The likes of Michael Smith, Michael van Gerwen and Rob Cross will be looking to add their name to the last eight line up on Wednesday.
Krzysztof Ratajski vs Andrew Gilding
The only second round match where two unseeded players meet opens up the night on Wednesday when the Poland number one Krzysztof Ratajski takes on the former winner of the UK Open in Andrew Gilding in what is a big clash for both men.
The fact that neither are seeded for this tournament tells us that they are falling down the rankings so a win here to get 30,000 ranking points would be big for whoever gets it and then there is the potential for more to come on top of that. It is hard to judge these two players. Ratajski had a huge margin of victory over Dave Chisnall in the first round but Chisnall returned an average of 85.76 so he barely turned up. Gilding had a good 10-5 win over Peter Wright, who averaged 95.26 so was a much more game opponent but the Scot was 5/20 on his doubles so he gave enough chances for Gilding to take advantage. One area where we might be able to separate these two is the fact that Gilding has won their last four meetings and he has won a TV tournament so he might be more comfortable on the stage. I don’t think this is an easy one to judge based on the form both coming in and from their first round matches but 15/8 Gilding feels like a big price in a match which feels much closer on paper.
Rob Cross vs Ryan Searle
The second match of the night sees the former champion Rob Cross looking to make it back into the quarter finals in Blackpool when he goes up against a Ryan Searle who will be aiming for a spot in the last eight for the second year in succession.
Cross could easily be on his way home after the first round after Gian van Veen bungled countless chances to get rid of him on Sunday and so he could easily feel as though he is playing with the house money from here on in. Searle got out in front of Damon Heta in the first round and managed to stay clear and came through nicely in the end with a pretty solid performance. While Cross could have been knocked out, to be fair he didn’t do too much wrong against van Veen. He averaged 100.42 so played very well. Searle bettered that average in the opening round so this has the potential to be a cracker. Where I think there could be a betting avenue is in the most 180s market. Cross has won that on the last three stage matches between these two and while Searle was once a relentless 180 hitter, we saw in the first round that any kind of awkward lie sends him heading for cover and he only had three visits with three trebles in 14 legs against Heta. Cross hit seven 180s and had three more three treble visits against van Veen in the 25 legs he played so the Cross scoring was more sustained in terms of three treble visits per leg yet many bookmakers have these two at the same price for the most 180s. I think Cross is the one to be on there.
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Michael van Gerwen vs Joe Cullen
The penultimate match in the second round of the tournament sees the former champion Michael van Gerwen looking to back up his high profile win over Luke Littler in the first round when he takes on Joe Cullen who had a confidence boosting win in the opening part of the event.
Cullen arrived in Blackpool with no form at all but he put in a very dominant performance against Brendan Dolan and won with plenty in hard and if he has a similar level with him here he will be a challenge for van Gerwen, particularly with a bit of a comedown expected from the Dutch star after he would have inevitably been extra amped for a meeting with the new kid on the block. Cullen will need that level with him though because if he reverts back to how he was playing before the Dolan win that certainly won’t be good enough here. I find it hard to see MVG not winning this but I don’t see him playing quite as well as he did in the first round which puts me off handicaps and things, especially if Cullen has taken the confidence he should have from the win over Dolan.
Michael Smith vs Chris Dobey
The pick of the matches on Wednesday is probably the one saved for the last game as the former world champion Michael Smith takes on a Chris Dobey who will be hoping that this is the week that he lands one of the bigger titles in the game.
These two met at this stage of the tournament last year and Dobey came out on top 11-7 and then he walloped Smith 4-0 at the World Championship at the end of 2023 but you do feel that this is a different Smith. He was tinkering with new darts and everything else back then and was also the world champion here and the defending champion at Ally Pally and that is a tag which carries a bit of weight to it. Both men had good wins in the first round but Smith was undoubtedly the better player. I mentioned in my preview of the Dobey match against Ritchie Edhouse that his stage performances since he lost in the manner that he did at the World Championship does concern me and 28 missed darts at double in that contest has done nothing to alleviate those doubts. You can get 4/5 with the sponsors for Smith to win this one and that just looks too big to me.
Tips
Back A.Gilding to beat K.Ratajski for a 3/10 stake at 2.88 with Coral
Back R.Cross Most 180s vs R.Searle for a 3/10 stake at 2.20 with William Hill
Back him here:
Back M.Smith to beat C.Dobey for a 3/10 stake at 1.80 with Betfred
