Daryl Gurney vs Danny Noppert
Roll the clock back perhaps twelve months and you’d have to say the Daryl Gurney would have started the match as odds on favourite but such has been the rise of the Dutchman Danny Noppert this season that he starts a strong favourite in this one.
In the opening round he defeated Gurney’s Northern Irish World Cup partner Brendan Dolan 10-6 and he didn’t have it all his own way. He actually trailed 6-4 at the second interval before reeling off six successive legs to run out a shade more comfortable winner than most imagined at the mid- point.
It wasn’t a case of him struggling either, he averaged 100.70 in that match, hit 58.8% of his doubles and registered seven 180’s. A very good performance from whichever angle you look at it especially when you consider Dolan’s efficiency in the checkout department early on was superb too.
That takes Noppert’s win percentage for the year to 74% and the UK Open winner will see this as a real opportunity to progress to the Quarter-Final stage of this event for the first time.
Gurney is a solid opponent. He defeated Gary Anderson 10-7 in his opening match and whilst that was a shock to some, he was a widely tipped underdog to prevail. He gave his opponent too many opportunities in that game and should’ve arguably won a shade cosier.
Anderson wasn’t at is best and Gurney wasn’t either, both men averaged 92 and you’d have to say that ‘Superchin’ will need to raise his game to trouble the in-form Noppert here. Gurney has managed a couple of Semi-Final runs this year, one on the floor and one on the Euro Tour but on the whole he’s been consistent without being spectacular.
The pair met in the World Cup of Darts recently and it was the Dutchman who won 4-2. I expect him to be too strong here too given the superior season he’s having. In a race to eleven in the second round, take him on the handicap to come out on top here for bigger odds.
Michael Smith vs Dirk Van Duijvenbode
I’m not going to look at form too closely in this one, nor am I going to predict a match winner in this one. This is a match that between two players in form, that will be played at a superb pace that will suit both players and one where the only angle I want to focus on is the maximum count.
These two are two of the biggest hitters of the Red Bit in the game. Dirk Van Duijvenbode is the best 180 hitter in planet darts at 0.39 per leg but Michael Smith isn’t far behind him at 0.34 per leg and set a record at the last World Championship for the amount of 180’s hit by a single player.
Both players in the opening round struggled to hit the 180’s early but from the second interval onwards both dug deep and hit maximums for fun in the latter stages as they both really found their groove and hit top gear.
If both players can carry on how they finished their previous matches then we could be in for a mesmeric match, with big score after big score and both players going toe to toe in the maximum battle.
I’m not going to predict either player to come on top in that respect either I’m going for both players to hit x 180’s each to reward us at a nice price, especially as this could go deep and in the 30 legs they’ve played against each other this year they accumulated 19 of them in 30 legs of darts.
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