After a thrilling evenings action last night we’re down to the final four players. Michael Smith is now the bookies favourite following his victory over the World Number One and defending champion Gerwyn Price. Once again our darts expert previews tonight’s action providing his darts betting tips knowledge and predictions for the PDC world championships.
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The Semi-Finals of the Championships is on Saturday 2nd January
James Wade vs Michael Smith
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Semi-Final
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Match due to start at 7:40pm
James Wade has reached this stage by dropping just one set in the tournament and that was in his opening match, a 3-1 victory over Maik Kuivenhoven. Since then he’s defeated Martijn Kleermaker 4-0 and Mervyn King 5-0. He has of course played one less match than he normally would’ve done as his scheduled third round opponent Vincent Van Der Voort had to withdraw due to a positive Covid test.
His tournament average for this years Worlds is just 87.67 and he’s only hit four 180’s. His doubling is decent at 40% however and he’s one of those players that takes his opportunities when he gets them. He’s won 36 legs this week and he’s only had darts at the double in 40. He’s a player who punishes any lapse by his opponent, if he gets an opportunity.
Michael Smith on the other hand has really produced the goods. He opened up with a 3-0 victory over Ron Meulenkamp by producing the best individual performance statistically of the tournament so far, hitting 75% of his doubles and averaging 106.32.
He then defeated William O’Connor 4-2 in their third round clash with his ‘worst’ performance of the four he’s played with an average of 97.42, some 4.27 points higher than Wades’ best at 93.15.
He’s then come through two magnificent tungsten tussles to defeat both Jonny Clayton and
Gerwyn Price in last set deciders. He averaged just shy of 100 in beating Clayton 4-3 and almost 102 in defeating Price in two nip and tuck matches. Both these Welshman have, along with Peter Wright been the best players of 2021 so to beat them both in thrillers is a testament to how well he’s playing. Neither of those wilted or underperformed, Smith just got over the line albeit he had to survive a couple of match darts in his latest match. He deserved that luck however.
In comparison to Wades’ tournament stats Bully Boy’s are a notch above. He’s averaging 100.54 for the event, has hit 43 180’s – some 39 more than Wade – and his doubling stands at 48.51%. Whichever you look at these, these are title winning figures. The only negative for Smith is that Wade has a very good record against him. Their record stands at 17 wins for Wade, 4 wins for Smith and 1 draw, their last encounter being a 6-0 victory for James. This was over 18 months ago however and Smith has looked a different proposition this past week or so. He starts a strong favourite for this and if he can avoid falling behind early I expect him to come on top he
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Prediction: Michael Smith to Win, Michael Smith 12+ 180’s & Michael Smith 3 or More 100+ Checkouts
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Predicted Scoreline: Michael Smith to Win 6-3
Peter Wright vs Gary Anderson
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Semi-Final
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Match due to start at 9:20pm
According to the odds, this is predicted to be the closest game of the four games we can look forward to today.
Once again Humphries is another player to still be in having only played two games. These couldn’t have been more different. His opener he won 3-0 against Rowby-John Rodriguez losing just 2 legs whereas his second game he went all the way to a last set as he defeated Chris Dobey 4-3, digging deep and hitting a plethora of 180’s.
This will be a third Quarter-Final for him in four years and he’ll be hoping to advance past this stage for the first time and a lot here will depend upon on which Gary Anderson turns up.
The Flying Scotsman was much better in his most recent match against Rob Cross but his opponent didn’t really show up and only hit form late on. Staging a decent comeback he was kept at arms length by Anderson who closed out the match 4-3.
He’s still lucky to be in the event however and should’ve been eliminated by Ian White 4-2 who missed a match dart. White is notorious for not being at his best on stage and his old problems resurfaced as he lost a game he had in the palm of his hand.
The pair have met twice and it’s one win apiece with Luke winning their solitary meeting on TV when he was invited to be involved in a one-off match in the Premier League.
Humphries has had the better year reaching four finals whereas Anderson’s best is a Semi-Final. I think one of the rising stars of the game will be able to match the previous back to back winner of this event and take one step closer to the title than he’s ever managed before.
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Prediction: Over 22.5 180’s between Peter Wright vs Gary Anderson
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Predicted Scoreline: Peter Wright to Win 6-5
Back the Darts Semi-Finals predictions below ⬇️
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Load the bet slip @ 5.01 at Paddy Power
Back the Darts Semi-Finals Correct Score bet below ⬇️
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Load the bet slip @ 38.5 at Paddy Power
18+ please gamble responsibly. All odds displayed correct at the time of publishing.
