The opening round of the World Series of Darts Finals in Glasgow sees the 16 men who came through the qualifier for the competition and those invited into it doing battle over the best of 11 legs for the reward of facing one of the seeds later in the day on Saturday.
In all on Saturday afternoon there will be eight matches with the eight winners being used as cannon fodder for the more established stars in the evening session. At least that is how the tournament is billed. With a best of 11 format throughout Saturday nothing will follow as simply as that.
The tournament begins with Simon Whitlock facing Rowby-John Rodriguez for the right to face Stephen Bunting in the second round. Whitlock hasn’t been his best for a while and although he is getting better he’s nothing like the player we are used to seeing.
Those who only watch darts on ITV4 will have seen the best and the worst of Rodriguez in the European Championship but he’s much better than he showed against John Henderson and I’m expecting him to show that here.
These two have met on stage in European Tour events over the last few months and Rodriguez has won on both occasions. He’s a great price to make it three wins from three against the Australian.
Two young stars battle it out in the next match when Benito van de Pas takes on Jamie Lewis. James Wade awaits the winner in the second round and I’m fancying that winner to be the Dutchman.
I think he’s going to be a real star once he’s used to the stage climate and gets comfortable there. At the minute he’s still acclimatising but so is Jamie Lewis. What I like about van de Pas is he has beaten lesser players on the stage it is just the top ones he’s found wanting against but he comes here off the back of a run to a final on the floor last month and that makes him my pick here.
In terms of bets that is where my powder runs out in the afternoon session. Max Hopp, Michael Smith, Dave Chisnall, Robert Thornton, Terry Jenkins and Ian White all look worthy favourites but nothing is certain in a best of 11 shootout.
None of them are particularly appealing odds wise and there isn’t a whole lot in the odds to take them on with. I guess some would consider Mark Webster and Kyle Anderson to be dangers to Smith and Chisnall respectively but I’m not convinced. I’ll take it easy and stick with just the two bets.
Back R-J.Rodriguez to beat S.Whitlock for a 4/10 stake at 2.50 with BetVictor
Back B.van de Pas to beat J.Lewis for a 4/10 stake at 1.80 with Bet365
Blog darts YTD: -2.17pts
