The second round of the Boylesports World Grand Prix concludes tonight and our tipster Chris Hammer previews all four games with predictions, tips and stats.
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Gerwyn Price is the only seed left in the bottom half of a wide open draw and those eight players will take to the stage at the Ricoh Arena tonight in a bid to reach the quarter-finals.
There may have been plenty of typical double-start 'surprises' so far but followers of our daily previews have been given winning tips of 3/1, 5/4, 1/1, 7/2, 4/1, 13/8, 11/10 and 2/1 from the total of 15 suggested across the opening three days. So here's tonight's offerings...
World Grand Prix: Friday October 9
- TV Coverage: Sky Sports (1900 GMT)
- Second round: Best of five sets
SUGGESTED ACCA
- Joyce (+1.5), De Zwaan & Cullen at 7.8/1
- Click here to build your acca at Sky Bet
- Sky Bet Price Boost: Price & Chisnall both to win 3-0 (WAS 7/1) - 9/1
Ryan Joyce (23/10) v Dave Chisnall (1/3)
- Career PDC titles: 1-15 (TV: 0-0)
- Titles this season: 1-0 (TV: 0-0)
- PDC Order of Merit: 40th - 10th
- ProTour Order of Merit: 20th - 12th
- World Grand Prix best: Rd 2 (2020) - RU (2013, 2019)
- World Grand Prix Wins/Losses: 1/0 - 17/9
Dave Chisnall's prowess as a double-start player must not be overlooked by his long-standing reputation as a heavy 180 scorer and he proved that yet again on Tuesday when posting the tournament's 15th ever 100+ average against Glen Durrant.
His mark of 102.85 was the sixth highest ever and it probably would have been enough to win even if the real Duzza had actually turned up to challenge him.
The two-time runner-up, who was beaten in last year's final by MVG, is now a very short favourite to reach the quarter-finals for the fifth time ahead of his clash against Peter Wright's conqueror Ryan Joyce.
The debutant, who'll no doubt have played double-start quite a lot locally in the North East where it's more prevalent than other areas, was ruthless on his doubles at both ends of legs to pull off a shock that I, ahem, tipped up at 4/1.
Joyce never failed to get away first time in any of the nine legs against Wright, who subsequently struggled under the mounting pressure, and even hit one of his six finishing doubles (from just eight attempts) when Snakebite was still on 501.
It may not be quite so easy against such a confident Chizzy but he's even money on the handicap with a 1.5 set start so that's where I'm heading.
Prediction: 2-3
Suggested bet: Joyce (+1.5 sets) to win at evens
Gabriel Clemens (4/6) v Jeffrey de Zwaan (6/5)
- Career PDC titles: 0-2 (TV: 0-0)
- Titles this season: 0-0 (TV: 0-0)
- PDC Order of Merit: 38th - 25th
- ProTour Order of Merit: 22nd - 31st
- World Grand Prix best: Rd 2 (2020) - Rd2 (2018, 2019, 2020)
- World Grand Prix Wins/Losses: 1/0 - 3/2
Gabriel Clemens reminded everyone why the darts fraternity think so highly of him thanks to a 2-0 victory over Nathan Aspinall on his tournament debut - although it really should have gone to a deciding set.
That's not to take anything away from how well the Gentle Giant handled the occasion but he was let off the hook in both sets as the Asp missed seven of his 10 darts at finishing doubles.
Clemens actually performed even worse at that part of the game, spurning 17 of his 23, so with that in mind he did pretty well to average as high as 86 in this double-start format.
Jeffrey de Zwaan made the most of his late entry into the competition following Stephen Bunting's positive test for Covid-19 with a 2-1 victory over Jamie Hughes.
Although that clash went the distance, the Dutchman cruised through the decider with two 15-darters and checkouts of 136, 90 and 72 so if he maintains that kind of clinical momentum then a very minor odds upset is on the cards.
Prediction: 1-3
Suggested bet: Jeffrey de Zwaan to win the match, score over 2.5 180s and checkout over 87.5 at 9/4
Gerwyn Price (1/5) v Kim Huybrechts (7/2)
- Career PDC titles: 14-4 (TV: 3-0)
- Titles this season: 5-0 (TV: 1-0)
- PDC Order of Merit: 3rd - 22nd
- ProTour Order of Merit: 1st - 38th
- World Grand Prix best: QF (2018) - QF (2016)
- World Grand Prix Wins/Losses: 4/5 - 4/7
Gerwyn Price bounced back from an extremely vulnerable position to avoid a first-round upset against Jermaine Wattimena and now he's settled in the the tournament, it's hard to see anything other than another victory for him tonight.
The two-time Grand Slam of Darts champion, who recently won three PDC titles in a row including the Word Series in Austria, was 2-0 down early on and had to survive two set darts before seizing the initiative and then edging the second by the same 3-2 scoreline.
His average of 84 wasn't exactly sparkling but there's clearly a lot of room for improvement on his performance, and you perhaps can't say the same about Kim Huybrechts based on his overall form this year.
The Belgian's 87 helped him overcome Brendan Dolan and he'll need to raise that significantly to trouble Price.
Although it's 1/5 for the match win, if you throw in Price to hit most 180s as well you can get 11/10. Not bad when you consider the Iceman hit four maximums in 10 legs of his match while Huybrechts managed three in 13.
Prediction: 3-1
Suggested bet: Price to win and hit most 180s at 11/10
Joe Cullen (1/1) v Jonny Clayton (4/5)
- Career PDC titles: 3-3 (TV: 0-0)
- Titles this season: 0-0 (TV: 0-0)
- PDC Order of Merit: 21st - 18th
- ProTour Order of Merit: 18th - 19th
- World Grand Prix best: R2 (2017, 2020) - R2 (2020)
- World Grand Prix Wins/Losses: 2/4 - 1/2
I think both players would be lying if they said they didn't have at least one eye on a potential semi-final run now that this draw has opened up so much, so the loser will head home bitterly disappointed.
Joe Cullen was in exactly this same scenario during the World Matchplay when he upset Ian White to set up a second-round meeting with Dimitri Van den Bergh in a competition that was dropping seeds left, right and centre.
He obviously lost and the Belgian went onto win the title - let alone reach the semis - so I think that might be on his mind tonight as a source of inspiration rather than anything else. "Get in that situations again and make the most of it because look what can happen." That kinda thing.
Not that Clayton won't be motivated either and both players have enjoyed superb runs of recent form away from the TV cameras recently - but Cullen's performance in beating Daryl Gurney 2-1 with an average of 92 was arguably better than how the Ferret dumped out Ian White 2-1 with an 85 average.
It's marginal, but Cullen gets my vote.
Prediction: 3-2
Suggested bet: Joe Cullen to win the match, score over 2.5 180s and checkout over 87.5 at 2/1
Click here for full 2020 World Grand Prix draw and schedule
Related links
- 2020 World Grand Prix draw and schedule
- 2020 Premier League fixtures & results
- 2020 PDC event calendar & results
- 2020 World Darts Championship results
- 2019 PDC event results
- Sky Bet's darts odds
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