Ross Smith is in good form coming into the World Matchplay and has always been a very good scorer. 

He’s picked up two Players Championship titles and a Euro Tour title this year but is still looking for his first major trophy since winning the European Championship back in 2022.

This game could go the distance, there’s not much between the players in terms of price (1.8-2.0) or seasonal underlying numbers so Ross Smith should have plenty of time to come away with a healthy maximum count.

Smith is averaging 0.33 180s per leg over the last year, which is a very strong record and should translate to at least 5 180s with 15-16 legs in this contest.

In terms of averages over the last year, only Luke Littler and Luke Humphries are outperforming Gerwyn Price who has maintained an average of 98.80, hitting a checkout in 85% of his games within 18 darts.

This standard is frightening for any player other than the top two in the field and I think Schindler will struggle to match Price over this format. 

This first to 10 legs format really suits the top players, it allows them plenty of breathing space to get back into the game if they start slowly and Price outperforms Schindler in pretty much every metric: 

Price v Schindler (Last 12 Months) 

Average:

• Price - 98.80

• Schindler - 93.46

Checkout Percentage:

• Price - 42.89%

• Schindler - 38.77%

Luke Humphries will be really motivated to go on a run at the World Matchplay having been knocked out in the first round by Gian Van Veen last year as he attempted to defend the trophy.

He’s got a much easier first round opponent this time around in Cameron Menzies, who has shown signs of life over the last few months - but ultimately doesn’t have the quality to live with Humphries over this format.

I’ve paired Humphries to win with Cool Hand also coming away with the highest checkout. Humphries is so efficient when it comes to three figure out shots and hit the highest checkout when these two faced off in this format at the European Championships last year (121).

Rob Cross has quietly been improving over the last few months after struggling across the last year as a whole. 

I can see this being a war of attrition between two very capable darts players. They will both feel as though they can get through this first round tie and their averages over the last 12 months are very similar (95.34-94.60).

These two faced off in the UK Open last year in the same format as they will play in this one with Rob Cross coming away a 10-9 winner on that occasion. 

They have played once this year in a shorter format contest that saw Noppert edge out a 6-4 victory.