Friday Afternoon PDC World Championship Tips – JP
Friday Afternoon PDC World Championship Preview
It was a tough session for us on Thursday evening but at least we finished on a high note with Anderson -1.5 sets at 2.45. The darting drama continues at the Ally Pally today with another two sessions. Check out James Punt’s Friday Afternoon PDC World Championship betting tips below.
Ryan Joyce vs. Roman Benecky
Pro tour winner Joyce is in decent form, winning seven of his last ten matches, but losing three of his last four. It is quite hard to know what to make of that form. This will be his fourth Ally Pally appearance and he has won two of his previous three first round matches.
Roman Benecky is the Eastern European qualifier, and he currently plays on the European Development tour. His seasonal average is just 79 and while he has won eight of his ten matches, his averages ranged from 68 to 91. This will be his first stage match and what a stage to make your debut in big time darts.
This is a good draw for Joyce, and he should win this comfortably. He is the 1.11 favourite and odds on to win to nil.
Friday Afternoon PDC World Championship Tip: 1 point Joyce to win 3-0 @ 1.73 with Boylesports
Keane Barry vs. Royden Lam
It will be interesting to see how Lam gets on here. The PDC Asian Tour has not been played for the last two years and it will have been difficult for their players to get much in the way of match practice of any great quality. Lam is making his third appearance at Ally Pally, and he has won one of his three matches.
Keane Barry won his tour card for 2021-22 and has embarked on a much-anticipated professional career. He is averaging 90 but that will be skewed downwards by also playing on the Challenge and Development tours. His average in the players championship events is 92, which is more representative of where his game is.
The young Irishman has lost in both his previous visits to Ally Pally, but those matches will have at least given him a taste of what to expect. He is the 1.25 favourite, but I’ll take a chance that Lam will have a lot of rust in his game and the talented Barry can take his chance and win to nil.
Friday Afternoon PDC World Championship Tip: 1 point Keane Barry to win 3-0 @ 2.75 with Ladbrokes
Jermaine Wattimena vs. Boris Koltsov
I am not a fan of the rapid firing Wattimena and think he is overrated. His recent form sees six defeats in his last ten. He has had a tour card since 2015 but remains without a title. He does enough to keep his tour card, so he is not without merit, but he is no more than a journeyman. His win rate in 2021 has slumped to 48% and his seasonal average is 92 which is a fair refection of his recent form.
Boris Koltsov has averaged 87 in 2021 and while he has a good A game, it is his C game we get to see more often than not. He has made four previous appearances in the World Championship and lost them all. He has won five of his last ten matches and had been putting in some decent scores in his last three or four matches at the start of last month.
Even with Wattimena in dubious form, it is Koltsov who needs to bring his A game if he is to win this. He will be helped by the fact he beat Wattimena in two of their three previous matches, all played in 2019.
The market has Wattimena as the 1.44 favourite and Koltsov the 2.90 outsider. Wattimena has lost four of his seven opening matches at Ally Pally, Koltsov winning only one of his four.
I am always tempted to oppose Wattimena and the odds are just about good enough to do so again.
Friday Afternoon PDC World Championship Tip: 1 point Boris Koltsov to win @ 2.90 with William Hill
Krzysztof Ratajski vs. Steve Lennon
Lennon beat Madars Razma 3-1 yesterday. It was a decent performance and he hit seven 180’s. His doubling wasn’t the best, but he will have been happy to win it after such a torrid run recently. Lennon is a hard player to gauge as he almost always looks like he is playing well even if he isn’t. He averaged 94 against Razma yesterday and got the job done in four sets but it could quite easily gone to a decider.
These two have met three times, with Ratajski winning all three, 18-5 in total legs. The last match was back in 2019.
Ratajski come into the World Championship in not particularly good form. Yes, he has won seven of his last ten but lost three of his last four and lost them because he was poor. Three sub ninety averages in a row is not a crisis but a cause for concern. His checkout % has held up and it is just his scoring which has slipped.
Relaxed Lennon
Lennon has won just two of his last twelve matches and one win over Razma doesn’t mean that he turned his form around, but he will be feeling more relaxed and he has the advantage of having played and won a match near already this weekend. All three of the first-round winners to play a second round match have all lost, and all by 1-3 score lines.
Given their H2H record, you have to think that Ratajski will win, but he will have needed to go back the practice board and improved on how he played at the Grand Slam and Players Championship finals, because if he plays like that again, he is in trouble.
Ratajski is the 1.33 favourite, Lennon 3.60. Ratajski makes no appeal at those odds. I am not entirely comfortable backing Ratajski given those recent performances, but the fact is that Lennon has been losing a lot of matches recently and if he comes under pressure, those scars will come to the fore. Why not another 3-1 for the seeded player?
