Gerwyn Price looks well placed to march on at the World Matchplay when he goes up against Chris Dobey in the second round. ‘The Iceman’ hit the ground running on Monday night with a 10-7 win over Daryl Gurney in what was a bad-tempered tungsten tussle. 

Price has been one of the PDC’s standout performers across 2025, and his round one success has cemented his position as a serious contender to lift the World Matchplay trophy on Sunday night. On current form, it’s difficult to look beyond another victory for the Welshman on Wednesday night. 

While Dobey produced a professional performance to get past Ricardo Pietreczko in round one, he will have to significantly raise his game if he is to overcome Price. What’s more, ‘Hollywood’ has fallen short in five of his eight meetings with Price this calendar year, including each of the last two. In fact, The Iceman defeated Dobey across the opening two weekends of this month, so he should also hold the psychological edge over the Geordie ace ahead of their Winter Gardens showdown.

Luke Littler sent out a statement to the rest of the field with a resounding 10-2 win over Ryan Searle on Sunday night. The teenage sensation had a near 109 average, crashing in 17 140s and five maximums en route to victory.  If ‘The Nuke’ can replicate that kind of performance moving forward, then he will take some stopping in his pursuit of a maiden World Matchplay title.

I backed Littler to see off Searle alongside hitting the most 180s, and I’m more than happy to side with the same combination on Wednesday night. The Warrington wonderkid boasts a 100% record against second-round opponent Jermaine Wattimena, taking top honours from each of their previous four meetings. A deeper dig shows that Littler won each of those four matches with room to spare, not to mention he also comfortably clocked up the most 180s in each of those triumphs.  

Wattimena made heavy weather of his round one win over Peter Wright, and Littler will undoubtedly prove a much sterner test. It’s also worth noting that ‘The Machine Gun’ failed to hit the most 180s in his win over Wright, with the pair registering four apiece.

Josh Rock is the overwhelming favourite to progress here at 1.62, but only a fool would write off Michael van Gerwen. While the ‘Green Machine’ is not playing at the peak of his powers right now, he always commands respect. What’s more, this is exactly the type of assignment that MVG tends to be extra motivated for - a case in point was his triumph over Luke Littler on this stage in last year’s first round. 

While I’m not prepared to pull the trigger on a van Gerwen victory, a minimum of 19 legs looks like a real runner at 1.83. It wasn’t that long ago that these two players pushed themselves to the limit in a Grand Slam of Darts classic, not to mention the pair have since contested multiple close-fought contests on the Euro Tour.   

With their Blackpool showdown a race to 11 - or potentially even more - I suspect MVG’s superior big stage nous and experience will ensure that Rock doesn’t run away with this one. The proposed over 18.5 legs play would require both players to deliver 8+ legs apiece, and I think that looks well within the realms of possibility for Wednesday night’s curtain-closer.