The darting action resumes on Tuesday with Dimitri Van Den Bergh and Krzysztof Ratajski getting us underway.

These two have met thirteen times previously and it is Dimitri who has a vastly superior Head to Head record, leading 9-4 overall. This also translates this year where Dimitri leads 3-1 and on TV where he leads 3-0.

The TV meetings in particular are important as they have been in big events. Their latest meeting was at the World Cup earlier in the year when Dimitri won 4-1. More significantly they met twice in Semi-Finals, which are longer format games and Dimitri won both those; 17-9 in the Matchplay and 11-8 in the World Series of Darts Finals.

Both have gone through bleaker times of late on the board although Dimitri experienced success twice on TV earlier in the year, winning back to back World Series of Darts events.

Whilst he hasn’t fared as well late since his switch to a new manufacturer, he interestingly reverted back to his tried and tested darts (or very similar at least) in the opening match where he averaged 97.20 and won 3-0 against the tricky Lourence Ilagan. Ratajski also won comfortably by a margin of 3-1 but his average was just 88.61 and he allowed his opponent 31 darts at the double. If he does that again here, he’s in deep trouble.

This pair met for the first time in four years at the final of Players Championship 21 this year and it was Dolan who came out in top 8-5. He also boasts a slight favourable head to head record, leading 4-3. During that aforementioned final it was Clayton who won the 180 headcount by a score of 3 to 1, despite losing.

Looking at their opening matches Dolan hit two as he emerged victorious 3-1 against Jimmy Hendriks in a low quality encounter. Clayton in comparison found his groove straight away, averaging 99.62 in a straightforward 3-0 win over Danny Van Trijp, hitting five maximums to boot.

This is backed up by the seasonal stats too. Dolan, whose triumph aside at Players Championship 21 has not enjoyed a good year, is one of the lower 180 hitters at 0.13 per leg, one every eight legs. Clayton in comparison hits them at 0.23 per leg, nearer on every four legs.

Clayton starts a warm favourite despite the head to head advantage of Dolan. The safer proposition is to side with Jonny to hit the most 180’s.

The evening action starts with Jim Williams vs Gabriel Clemens and this promises to be very close. The pair have only met once, back in 2020 when it was Williams who came out on top 6-2. Williams has already come through two tough games to reach this stage winning 3-1 against the promising youngster Sebastian Bialecki then by the same margin against James Wade, the highest seed to have departed so far.

The German giant, Gabriel Clemens has always been a huge talent but often flatters to deceive. Last time Peter Wright was defending this title Clemens defeated him in a terrific match. He also produced a terrific performance to beat the conqueror of Beau Greaves, William O’Connor 3-0 with a 95.64 average. This is tough to call as the betting suggests and I wouldn’t be surprised to see this go all the way, so over 5.5 sets seems more than achievable.

Gerwyn Price and Raymond Van Barneveld have played each other three times of late and it is the Dutch legend who has won on each occasion including twice at the Grand Slam of Darts in November.

During these matches there have been thirty one maximums in forty eight legs of darts. This is the angle I like here and with the possibility of this having plenty of legs, as matches are now best of seven sets I can see both players comfortably hitting 5 or more apiece. In the long format game they hit 17 between them, 6 for Barneveld and 11 for Price. Barneveld also hit 7 in his opener in this event and despite Price only hitting two, he had numerous chances with his third dart letting him down. With the rivalry developing here, both should raise their games and the 180 line should be breached.

The evening action concludes with the defending champ, Peter Wright taking on Kim Huybrechts. Both won 3-0 in their opening games but weren’t pushed as they defeated the two players with the lowest average in the second round. Peter Wright had the slightly better average of the two and boasts the better seasonal stats.

The pair met at the World Grand Prix and Wright won 2-0 to extend his TV head to head record to 9-2. Having said that Huybrechts defeated him 6-0, 6-1 and 6-0 prior to this and one of these whitewashes came earlier this season. With that in mind Huybrechts can string enough legs together to win at least a set, even if Wright continues his televised dominance.