Saturday Afternoon UK Open Darts Preview & Tips – JP
Saturday Afternoon UK Open Darts Preview
The evening session saw James Punt’s decent run continue. It didn’t start well but he finished up with two nice winners from four tips. He has found time to preview a selection of today’s matches, check out his Saturday Afternoon UK Open darts tips below.
Ritchie Burnett vs. Ted Evetts
Two names who would not have been fancied to get this far, but one is going through to the last 16 stage and win £10000. The two players have not set the world on fire scoring wise, but they have got good draws and done enough to get through.
Burnett has averaged 88, Evetts 89. They have met three times and it is 2-1 to Burnett but his wins were way back in 2017/8. They played once this season and Evetts won 6-1. None of their previous matches have been close, but this looks like it should be. Neither player has displayed any signs of having enough fire power to dominate and over the longer format it could be a case of who falls over the line first.
Evetts is the very marginal 1.95 favourite with Burnett 2.00. Both their 4th round matches were over 17.5 legs and this looks like be another.
Saturday Afternoon UK Open Tip: 1 point over 17.5 legs @ 2.60 with Ladbrokes
William O’Connor vs. Danny Noppert
Last year’s semi-finalist vs. last year’s winner, and it’s not on the big stage. The PDC don’t seem to rate Noppert very highly. No premier league and no big stage for the defending champion for his first two matches.
Noppert has already picked up a title this year so he is in decent form and needed to be to get past one of our 156.00 title shots, Jim Williams. Both players ended up with 99.8 averages, but Noppert won 10-8. It was a very tough draw for Williams, and we didn’t get much luck with the 4th round draw.
Easy Opener
O’Connor smashed Jermaine Wattimena 10-1 and averaged 97.2 in his 4th round match. He clearly likes the venue/tournament, and he has reached the 5th round four times, winning just the one 5th round match and that was last year when he beat Stephen Bunting 10-9. He went on to the semi-final where he met Danny Noppert, and he lost that 9-11. The Magpie will have been glad to get a win yesterday as it ended a run of five straight defeats. He has only won six of his thirteen matches in 2023.
Danny Noppert is in better form, winning PC2, and his has won 74% of his 2023 matches. He has had a few flat spots along the way, as he is prone to do, but he has to be the favourite to repeat his win of last year. He is 5-1 up on O’Connor and has won their last five in a row. Apart from a 4-1 win the World Cup, all their matches have been close.
Noppert is the 1.53 favourite, O’Connor 2.75. I will go for another overs match.
Saturday Afternoon UK Open Tip: 1 point over 16.5 legs @ 2.00 with Hills
Gerwyn Price vs. Jeffery de Zwaan
Price was superb when beating the young qualifier Thomas Banks 10-3 last night. He is in great scoring form and is likely to blow De Zwaan away.
The Dutchman has averaged 90 on his way to get this far and unless he can find his old A game, he could get a pasting today.
Saturday Afternoon UK Open Tip: 1 point Price to win -4.5 legs @ 2.00 with Betvictor
Michael Smith vs. Luke Humphries
The match of the round. Their last two meetings have both been in best of 19 leg matches and Smith won both 10-7. Overall, he is 6-4 up but two of Humphries’ wins were Home Tour matches. Smiths’ wrist must have been OK yesterday as he averaged 101 when thrashing Ian White 10-4. Humphries beat Damon Heta 10-9 and averaged 95.3.
There is very little between these two in terms of their scoring, checkout percentages and 180 hitting. Smith is ranked 2nd for 180’s per leg, Humphries 8th. In their last two matches the best of 19 leg matches. Both produced 10 maximums. Under 10.5 180’s is a 2.04 shot and there is not enough value in that market.
We should get a fairly close match. Both players are in good form and confident, Smith doesn’t seem to have any problem with his wrist and it’s all set for a tear up. Smith is 1.62 favourite which looks about right. Another 10-7? Why not.
Saturday Afternoon UK Open Tip: 1 point over 16.5 legs @ 1.83 with Fitzdares
Saturday Afternoon UK Open Tip: 0.5 point Smith to win 10-7 @ 8.50 with SpreadEx, Betfair, Unibet
Joe Cullen vs. Karel Sedlacek
Evil Charlie has only dropped six legs in three matches so far. He hasn’t matched his 107 average of the second round in the next two rounds, but he has been his usual composed self. It is a surprise to see him playing well again as his form coming into this was really poor, losing eight in a row.
Cullen averaged 97 in his 10-7 over newcomer Dylan Slevin who was a bit disappointing, averaging 87. He still got seven legs and while Cullen is in good form, hitting five ton plus averages in his last ten, he does have the odd flat spot, like losing to Steve Beaton on the euro tour last week.
Cullen should win so long as he doesn’t have one of his dips, or Sedlacek has one of his mad matches. Hopefully Karel should be able to bring his A game and win his fair share of legs.
Saturday Afternoon UK Open Tip: 1 point Sedlacek to win +3.5 legs @ 1.73 with Boyles and BET365
Jonny Clayton vs. Jose de Sousa
De Sousa should have won for us last night but it was another laboured performance and what should have been a very comfortable win turned into a 10-8.
Clayton had a tough draw but beat Ross Smith 10-9. He played De Sousa here last year at the same stage and won 10-1. De Sousa was truly dreadful that day and he should make a better fist of it, but Clayton is 9-3 vs. Jose and I fancy he wins this with something in hand.
