PDC World Darts Championship day seven tips!
Mervyn King v Ryan Joyce21/12/2021 14:15 |
King WinMervyn win 3-1 |
Dave Chisnall v Mike De Decker21/12/2021 15:00 |
Chisnall Win3-0 |
Dimitri van den Bergh v Florian Hempel21/12/2021 15:00 |
Dimitri Win3-1 |
Devon Petersen v Raymond Smith21/12/2021 21:30 |
Smith Win3-1 |
Day 7 of the PDC World Darts Championship and back to the double session today.
8 games to look forward to including our first look at some big names, Dimitri Van den Bergh, Dave Chisnall, Mervyn King and Michael Smith, all of which can have a really good run at this event. Here are my tips for Day 7.
This has the potential to be a great game, both players are coming into this event in very good form. Mervyn King is coming into this year’s World Championship on the back of a very solid season. He’s continually been in and around the latter stages of pro tour events and has had some fabulous performances on TV. He started the year off with a great run to the final of the Masters where he lost a very good game to Jonny Clayton 11-8.
He backed that up just a few months ago with a great run to the quarter-finals in the World Series Finals, where most notably he beat James Wade in the first round with a 115.62 average, his highest average ever on TV. He will be looking to have another deep run in this year’s World Championship although he hasn’t progressed past the 4th round since 2009, something he will certainly want to improve on!
Ryan Joyce is another player who’s had a pretty good year, he’s notably said in interviews this season that he’s practising more and taking it more seriously, which is certainly starting to show in his performances.
He had a good tournament in the Grand Slam where he showed his quality in a 5-1 win in the group stages against Rowby-John Rodriguez with a 108.11, although eventually losing in the knockout stages to Rob Cross 10-4.
He’s already had a game in this tournament and he came through a tricky tie with Roman Benecky 3-2 but showed his class when he needed to. He averaged 93.44 in that match but will be looking to improve on that ready to face The King.
This will be a very good match and I expect both of them to play well. I’m going to side with Mervyn King however as I think he really has looked in the mood lately and when he’s up for it he seems to play his best darts. I think it’s going to be tight in most sets but King will come through in the end.
Our first chance to have a look at the form of Dave Chisnall in this year’s World Championship. He returns a year on from a blistering run to the Semi-Final last time out, losing to Gary Anderson 6-3, but most notably he dismantled Michael Van Gerwen the round before 5-0. So he will be looking to have a similar run this time!
He’s had a good year on TV with three-Quarter Final appearances, in The Masters, The UK Open and The World Grand Prix and a semi-final appearance in the unique World Cup Of Darts. I think he has a genuine chance of regaining his spot in the Premier League this year but that means he will certainly need a good run and some good performances here to do so.
Mike De Decker did well last time out and coped really well with the 9 darter thrown at him by Darius Labanauskas, winning 9 of the last 11 legs to run out a 3-1 winner averaging 89.36. He will certainly need to up that performance here to trouble Chizzy but now De Decker has secured his tour card next season after winning in the first round, he may well now play with freedom and that could perhaps make him dangerous. He definitely has the game to give Chisnall problems, I’m just not sure if that will happen today.
I think Chisnall will play well today and will run out a pretty comfortable winner. He may well lose a set but I think Chizzy will want to put a message out to his fellow pros so I can see him swiftly brushing De Decker aside.
Dimitri Van den Bergh comes into this year’s World Darts Championship as one of the favourites, and rightly so. He’s had a blistering year and is really cementing his place now in the sport’s elite. He’s had two Major TV finals this season in the World Series Finals and in the World Matchplay where he almost pulled off back to back titles after winning the year before. He’s had a much better year on the floor tournaments this year also, winning two Players Championship events, number 12 and 24 of the season.
Although he did lose his last 6 matches at the end of the season in the Players Championship floor events, which will be a little concerning. Dimitri however, thrives for the big TV tournaments and consistently looks at home in front of the big crowds. He’s got a real chance this year and I wouldn’t be surprised if a big run from him but will have to navigate past the tricky Hempel first.
Florian Hempel, incredibly, only picked up a set of darts 4 years ago. Just to be at this point is amazing after such a short amount of time. He has some Gerwyn Price comparisons too, after playing Handball at a very high level, his competitive sporting background will be a big help, playing under pressure now with darts. He had a good win in his first match of the tournament, beating fellow German, Martin Schindler, pretty comfortably 3-0. He will certainly have to improve however to push Dimitri as he only averaged 89.18, and I think he definitely will. He looks like a really good prospect and has a good solid throw to push on and make a big name for himself in this sport.
However, I just feel this could be Dimitri’s year. I think he’s ready for a big push and a good run this year and he’ll have too much for Hempel. It will be a competitive match and I don’t see Hempel rolling over, each set will probably be close but I can’t see Dimitri being troubled too much.
This match could be very interesting and I believe there is certainly a mini shock on the cards. Devon Petersen has had a torrid time this year, coming off the back of a brilliant season the year before, he’s failed to live up to expectations since and hasn’t progressed at all. He has suffered from an injury this season which of course hasn’t helped.
His form really hasn’t been there at all though, with a seasonal average on the Players Championship floor events of just 89.31. He has only won 1 of his last 12 games on tour in all competitions coming in this tournament, so he will definitely feel concerned.
Raymond Smith however will be feeling extremely confident heading into this second round tie, after coming through a really good game and a tricky opponent in Jamie Hughes. Smith played really well too, winning 3-1 with a 94.84 average. I think he looked really impressive and played some good stuff when he was under pressure. He’s had a good year also and came into this tournament playing very well.
I really think this will be a pretty comfortable victory for Raymond Smith, just based on the form of Petersen lately and also the fact Smith has now had a game on that stage and looked extremely comfortable.
Of course, if Devon Petersen plays as he can it will be a different story and could be a very close match, but I just don’t see that happening. Petersen will however probably hit a lot of 180s as he tends to do so in most matches he plays.
Steven is the product manager on BettingLounge and enjoys enhancing sporting events through betting for long-term, sustainable profit.
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