PDC World Championship darts: Day seven predictions, odds, betting tips, accas, order of play & TV times

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The first round at the Ally Pally is now complete, so Tuesday's sole session of darts this evening features four seeded players, including world number three Gerwyn Price.

Here's Chris Hammer's preview of every game, while at the very bottom there are also graphics of every player's season stats as well as an additional one to chart how successful they've all been in achieving the 'Match Treble' in all their PDC matches this year (winning with the most 180s and highest checkouts).

World Championship: Monday December 21

• TV Coverage: Sky Sports Darts (1800 GMT)
• Second Round: Best of 5 sets, no tie-breakers in any set

Monday's darts acca

• Ratajski & most 180s, Lewis (+2.5) at 3.05/1
• Click here to build your acca

Krzysztof Ratajski (2/5) v Ryan Joyce (2/1)

• Head to Head: 1-1
• 2020 Meetings: 0-0
• PDC Titles this Season: 1-1 (TV: 0-0)
• Career PDC Titles: 7-1 (TV: 0-0)
• PDC World Championship Appearances: 3-2
• PDC World Championship Best: Third Round (2020) – Quarter-finals (2019)

Regular readers of my tournament previews this year will know I tipped Krzysztof Ratajski for a couple of majors since the summer but this frustratingly coincided with him going off the boil apart from a few flashes of the brilliance that we know he possesses.

The Polish Eagle still managed to climb his way into the world's top 16 in 2020 thanks to a seventh career PDC title back in February, plenty of other lengthy runs and a World Matchplay quarter-final - where he was narrowly beaten by Michael Smith - so it would be foolish to dismiss his chances completely.

Ratajski did even reach the last Pro Tour final of the season during the Winter Series only to lose to Joe Cullen, but early exits at the Grand Slam of Darts and the Players Championship Finals followed, so perhaps he was just in need of some rest to recharge the batteries.

He'll need to hit the ground running against Ryan Joyce, who will feeling very lucky to still be in the competition after surviving six match darts - including four in a deciding leg - against the dejected Karel Sedlacek in the opening round.

The Geordie was expected to come through a little easier than that after a season in which he'd won a maiden PDC title and although his scoring wasn't so strong, his finishing was as clinical as ever with almost 48% of his doubles being hit.

I think Ratajski, whose season average is 97 compared to Joyce's 93, will have enough quality to win a close contest and his opponent's threat should push him towards the Player Performance targets listed below.

• Score Prediction: 3-2
• Suggested Bet: Krzysztof Ratajski to win the match, score over 3.5 180s and checkout over 95.5 at 2/1

Ian White (4/7) v Kim Huybrechts (11/8)

• Head to Head: 7-9
• 2020 Meetings: 2-0
• PDC Titles this Season: 1-0 (TV: 0-0)
• Career PDC Titles: 13-4 (TV: 0-0)
• PDC World Championship Appearances: 9-9
• PDC World Championship Best: Quarter-final (2014) – Quarter-final (2012)

Kim Huybrechts produced the second best performance of the first round from a statistical point of view when averaging 104.05 in a 3-0 destruction of China's Di Zhuang, who only managed four attempts at a double and missed the lot.

It would be easy to sit back and say any top player can do that when there's no pressure applied, but how many times do we see others get dragged down to the lesser opponent's level and end up hauling themselves over the finishing line?

As I wrote in my preview for that match, the Hurricane is known for blowing hot and cold without warning of when his temperature will change, and it was only a couple of years ago when he averaged 103 in a thumping win over Daniel Larsson on this stage before crumbling to a 4-0 thumping at the hands of Dave Chisnall in the very next round with an average of 90.

Last year, he didn't have to play particularly well to beat Rob Cross or Danny Noppert but as soon as Luke Humphries came out all guns placing in the fourth round, he crashed out 4-1 with an 89 average.

It's crucial, therefore, that Ian White puts Huybrechts under pressure early on if he's to prevent a fourth successive exit at this stage of the tournament having been bundled out by Gerwyn Price (2018), Devon Petersen (2019) and Darius Labanauskas (2020) in the last three years.

The fastest of fast start didn't actually help him against Petersen, who pulled off one of the great second-round comebacks from 2-0 down, while he also averaged 100 in his shock defeat to Labanauskas 12 months ago, so he's probably hoping the lack of a raucous Ally Pally atmosphere could prompt a change in fortunes, particularly at the nerve jangling moments.

White beat Huybrechts in both their meetings this year, including a semi-final at a Players Championship event he went on to win, while his seasonal average of almost 97 compared to the Belgian's 93 also explains the gulf in the odds. Diamond should win this, but it could need some nerves of steel.

• Score Prediction: 3-2
• Suggested Bet: Over 4.5 sets at 7/4

Gerwyn Price (1/7) v Jamie Lewis (9/2)

• Head to Head: 3-2
• 2020 Meetings: 1-0
• PDC Titles this Season: 8-0 (TV: 3-0)
• Career PDC Titles: 17-0 (TV: 5-0)
• PDC World Championship Appearances: 6-7
• PDC World Championship Best: Semi-Final (2020) – Semi-Final (2018)

When Jamie Lewis lit up the Ally Pally three years ago on his way to the semi-finals, you'd have been forgiven for thinking he'd be the formidable number one Welsh player in the near future.

However, his star faded as quickly as Gerwyn Price's shone even brighter and while he now heads into this clash needing a victory to keep alive his hopes of retaining his Tour Card, the Iceman has his sights firmly set on the biggest trophy of all and the coveted world number one spot.

Price has enjoyed another blockbusting year despite there being no crowds to fire him up, winning won more titles overall than anyone else with eight and bagging three of the seven televised events since the calendar resumed in July, including the highly prestigious World Grand Prix.

His form tailed off a little since bringing the World Cup to Wales alongside Jonny Clayton - but only in the sense he hasn't won any more titles. He lost a Winter Series final to Damon Heta and was edged out in close matches by Nathan Aspinall and Michael van Gerwen at the Grand Slam of Darts and Players Championship Finals respectively.

After plenty of rest and practice, he'll be ready to produce some fireworks tonight against a player who threw eight 180s in a first-round thriller with Luke Woodhouse.

Lewis may have ended up with an average of 90 but that owed much to his slow start in the opening two sets. Over the course of the next three, he played the kind of darts we saw from him three years ago and that will do his confidence wonders.

Both players will can weigh in with plenty of maximums tonight while Price is one of the most prolific 100+ checkout shooters in the game, winning almost 15% of his legs this season with one. Only Clayton has topped that in 2020 with a staggering 15.50%.

• Score Prediction: 3-1
• Suggested Bet: Match to have over 12.5 legs, highest checkout to be over 111.5 and over 6.5 total 180s at 11/10

Gabriel Clemens (2/5) v Nico Kurz (2/1)

• Head to Head: 0-1
• 2020 Meetings: 0-1
• PDC Titles this Season: 0-0 (TV: 0-0)
• Career PDC Titles: 0-0 (TV: 0-0)
• PDC World Championship Appearances: 2-1
• PDC World Championship Best: Second Round (2019) – Third round (2020)

Unfortunately I've already lost two of my four pre-tournament value outsiders to win their quarters of the draw - Damon Heta and Jeffrey De Zwaan - so I could really do with 100/1 shot Nico Kurz giving me a run for our money post Christmas.

I'd be lying if I said I was particularly encouraged by the young German's performance against Andy Hamilton, as he averaged just 88 in a lethargic 3-1 victory, but the slow pace of his opponent clearly played its part in preventing him from finding his rhythm.

The 23-year-old averaged around 95 in all three of his performances on this stage last year and he'll be confident of getting back to those levels against German number one Gabriel Clemens, who he beat on his way to German Superleague glory earlier in the season that sealed his Ally Pally return.

As highly rated as Clemens deserves to be, he has struggled for consistency in recent months had hasn't fared well at any of the majors - apart from a first round win over Nathan Aspinall at the World Grand Prix which preceded a 3-0 thrashing at the hands of Jeffrey de Zwaan - while his seasonal average of 94 won't strike fear into Kurz.

• Score Prediction: 2-3
• Suggested Bet: Kurz to win the match at 2/1

Season Statistics

To help you with your bets throughout the tournament, here are some excellent statistical graphs for every player in the field from Darts Tracker creator and Sporting Life contributor Carl Fletcher (@CarlyFletch & @Darts_Tracker on Twitter), while there is an additional graphic at the bottom charting each player’s frequency of bringing up the ‘Match Treble’ in PDC events this season. That is when they win, throw most 180s and hit the highest checkout. You can read more about Carl’s research on that by clicking here.

NB: Averages & 180 per leg data covers events except World Grand Prix (which is double-start and distorts figures), 100+ checkout % is all events, and doubles percentage is stage events only (majors and European Tour) because definitive double stats for Players Championship events aren't available.

CLICK HERE FOR FULL TOURNAMENT DRAW, RESULTS & SCHEDULE

More World Darts Championship content

• World Championship draw & schedule
• Chris Hammer's pre-tournament betting tips
• Carl Fletcher's 'what the stats say' preview
• Paul Nicholson's Ally Pally picks
• Carl Fletcher's Super Six Outsiders
• Carl Fletcher's Match Treble Masters
• James Cooper's Quarter masters
• Watch: All the World Championship nine-darters
• 2020 Premier League results
• 2020 PDC event calendar & results
• Sky Bet's darts odds