Unfortunately, it was a struggle for us on Monday night at the Winter Gardens. Merv King had enough chances vs Aspinall, he just didn’t take them. Heta looked like he might pull off the upset but after the second break, MVG dominated. Gary Anderson won, as predicted, but it ended up 10-5 and not 10-7 as we hoped for. We go back into the breach with a few more bets on Tuesday. Check out James Punt’s PDC World Matchplay Tuesday tips below.

Rob Cross vs. Callan Rydz

Two players with contrasting performances in the first round. Rob Cross was impressive when beating in form Ross Smith 8-2, averaging 100 but still missing too many doubles for comfort. He had six winning legs with 14 darts or less but he was not totally convincing and it was a very close match. Good scoring but overall, he needs to do better, but to be fair, Smith threw some very good darts and it was a good win.

Callan Rydz beat the struggling Glen Durrant 10-6, and it was a very poor match. With Durrant playing so badly these days, he is rarely involved in a good match, and he does drag opponents down a few levels, but for Rydz to only average 82 was poor. Yes, it was his Blackpool debut, and he is very inexperienced in front of a live crowd on a big stage, but he had only one leg of 15 darts or less. Yes, he got dragged down but the fact is that it was Rydz’ fifth straight sub 90 average in a row.

Rydz Must Be At His Best

Clearly Rydz needs to find his A game to compete tonight, and their annual stats are not that different. Cross is averaging 96.1 to Rydz 93.7 but their most recent form sees Cross winning eight of his last ten matches, Rydz six, but he was beating some poor players with sub 90 averages.

Cross has been there and got the T-shirt, including winning this tournament and a World Championship so playing on the big stage is nothing new for him. Rydz has played a handful of big stage matches with a big crowd and on the whole, not very well. If he was in better form, he might have a chance but Cross is feeling more confident again, playing better and is a big favourite in my book. Cross won there only previous meeting, a players championship match last year with a 6-5 win. With a big crowd atmosphere, I expect another win for Cross but by a bigger margin.

Cross is the 1.44 favourite, but he is best backed on the handicap.

PDC World Matchplay Tuesday Tip: 2 points Rob Cross to win -3.5 legs @ 2.38 with Betfair, Paddy Power, Skybet

Luke Humphries vs. Krzysztof Ratajski

Arguably the best performer in the first round was Luke Humphries, although Ratajski was also very impressive when he beat the in-form Brendan Dolan 10-4. Humphries beat James Wade 10-3, with an average of 101 and eight legs of 15 darts or less. He also hit an impressive eight 180’s.

Ratajski was equally as impressive when beating Dolan. He averaged 101.5 and was particularly strong on the doubles, checking out at 59%.

Their respective annual averages are very close with 97.5 for Ratajski, 96.7 for Humphries although Humphries has the better win rate at 69% compared to 58% for The Polish Eagle. Their H2H stats show a 3-0 record in favour of Ratajski but one of those was a Home Tour match and they have never met on stage before.

It is very hard to pick the winner here. The bookmakers have Ratajski as the 1.91 favourite and Humphries 2.00 and it does look like a coin toss to me.

After both players enjoyed wide margin wins on Sunday this first to eleven match might be the first to go extra time.

PDC World Matchplay Tuesday Tip: 1 point over 18.5 legs @ 1.91 with Hills, Betvictor, Skybet

Both players hit plenty of 180’s in the first round and while it is unlikely Humphries can repeat 8 from just 13 legs, hopefully a long match will allow them to get more than 10.

PDC World Matchplay Tuesday Tip: 1 point over 10 180’s @ 2.00 with Boylesports

Gerwyn Price vs. Jonny Clayton

A match worthy of a final. Two of the top three players on recent form, a World Champion vs. the Premier League Champion and World Cup winning teammates.

There is little between them on form, both averaging just over 99 in 2021, both with a win rate of 78% and both winning seven of their last ten. The only stat that sets them apart is their H2H record. Price leads 10-5 and has won the last seven in a row, including a 7-1 win in a players championship semi-final last month. Clayton hasn’t beaten Price since April 2018.

The Bookmakers have Price as the 1.57 favourite, Clayton 2.55.  Difficult to argue with given their H2H rate.

This should be a cracking watch but not a betting match for me.

Dimitri van den Bergh vs Dave Chisnall

Defending champion Van den Bergh had no problem beating the out of form Devon Petersen 10-5 in the first round while Chisnall found it harder to shake of Vincent van der Voort in a 10-8 win.

Both players have been scoring well in 2021, Dimitri averaging 97.7 and Chisnall 96.3. Their win rates are similar with 62% and 59% respectively. Their most recent form shows some inconsistency from Chisnall losing five of his last ten while Van den Bergh has won six of his last ten.

Chizzy has a good second round record in the Matchplay, played six won five and he has a good H2H over Van den Bergh, leading 6-2. They last met in the World Championship were Chisnall won 4-2 in a very high quality match. Chizzy has only lost one stage match in four to Van den Bergh.

Tricky Match

This is another tricky match. Chisnall has been blowing a bit hot and cold recently and he is hard to call as a result. Van den Bergh has been the more consistent performer, having plenty of good players championship runs but he has struggled against Chisnall in the past on the stage.

Van den Bergh is the 1.53 favourite which is too short for me, but Chisnall makes no real appeal at 2.60.

One possible value bet is total 180’s. Dimitri is ranked second for 180’s per leg in 2021 and Chizzy fourth, so they are two of biggest maximum hitters in the game. In their 6 set, 24 leg world championship match, they hit 19 maximum’s at a rate of 0.79 per leg. The bookies expect this match to go to 18-19 legs and it is not unreasonable to think we will see 14-15 maximums hit. The longer the match the better the chance and the odds are decent.

PDC World Matchplay Tuesday Tip: 1 point over 13.5 180’s @ 2.45 with Unibet

-JamesPunt