PDC 2021 Season Preview

With the PDC 2021 season due to kick off in just one weeks’ time, on the 29th January with the Masters tournament, now is a good time to have a quick look at players who may well be worth following in the year ahead. Check out James Punt’s PDC 2021 Season preview below…

Strange Times

Last year was a very strange season thanks to the restrictions imposed on professional sport in the Covid 19 era. The vast majority of events after 23rd March had to be played without any fans attending. The behind closed doors format, the norm for Players Championship events, became the norm for all the big tournaments. Some commentators, and players, believe that this changed the events so much that it led to different players coming through to win titles. True or not, this behind closed doors, fan free format looks set to continue for the foreseeable future.

We saw two first time major winners in Dimitri van den Bergh who won the World Matchplay and Jose De Sousa who won the Grand Slam of Darts. We had a new Premier League Champion in Glen Durrant and a new World Champion and World number 1, Gerwyn Price.

On the much-shortened Euro Tour there was a first PDC title for Devon Petersen, a first PDC title for Jose de Sousa at the European Darts Grand Prix. On the pro-tour there were first titles for Ryan Searle and Ryan Joyce.

The World Cup of Darts saw Wales winning the title for the first time.

MVG Struggles

There were also players who did not have a good 2020 season. The highest profile was Michael van Gerwen. He started the year by losing the final of the World Championship to Peter Wright. He changed darts manufacturer the following day and despite winning the UK Open in early March, he, by his own high standards, suffered a season long slump.

MVG won three Players Championship events in the Summer and Autumn Series and The Players Championship Final in November. So, two major Championships and three pro-tour titles. A brilliant year for most players, but not good enough for MVG.

It was the defeats that defined his season. Failing to make the Premier League Play offs for the first time. Suffering defeats in the World Matchplay and World Grand Prix, both to Simon Whitlock, losing two Euro Tour finals and losing the World Championship Quarter Final 0-5 to Dave Chisnall. MVG ended the season as the World number 2 after seven years at the top of the pile. Michael van Gerwen has not ‘gone at the game’, but he has been made to look human.

Van Gerwen will be looking to re-establish himself at the top in 2021 and he will remain as the favourite or near favourite for every tournament he plays in, but who else is worth keeping an eye out for in 2021?

Gary Anderson

The grumpy old man of darts is launching a comeback in 2021. He has committed himself to knuckling down, working on his game and is determined to get back to winning titles. Anderson has suffered with injuries for the last two years and has missed out on tournaments. He also decided to sit out some events last year to avoid catching Covid 19. This year he will have to take more risks with his health if he really is to play in everything, bar the Euro Tour. Now successful is comeback can be depends on now his body holds up to more travelling and more practice.

Anderson has arranged to set up practice sessions with Ryan Searle for the year ahead. The two live relatively close to each other and having a top-class practice partner will help both players. How soon they can actually start these sessions, is of course, dependant on the current lockdown restrictions being eased.

Anderson had a decent 2020 season, given that he was under prepared for most of the year. He won the first players championship event of the season and that was it titles wise, but he reached the semi-final of the Premier League and the finals of the World Matchplay and the World Championship. If his fitness holds up and he gets his intended practice regime in place, expect a few more titles for Gary Anderson during the 2021 PDC Season.

Dimitri van den Bergh

Won his first Major, the World Matchplay, in 2020 and he is now realising his potential. The two-time World Youth Champion always had the promise, but 2020 saw him join the elite. Personally, I though his standard of play at the Grand Slam showed what he really can do. He lost the semi-final to James Wade in a deciding leg but up to that point he was very impressive. He has the firepower to mix it with the very best and now he has added confidence and winning experience to his arsenal. Van Den Bergh averaged 100.99 across his four matches at the World Championship and I expect him to win another major during the 2021 PDC Season. He played most of the 2020 season in a knee brace which wasn’t ideal and when resorted to full fitness he will be a formidable opponent.

Daryl Gurney

2020 was Superchin’s first title free season since 2016. There was a UK Open semi-final before the lockdown in March and a quarter final at the World Championship at the end of the year, but not a lot in between. He had lost his scoring power for much of the year and having been one of the big beasts on the 180 front, he wasn’t hitting a lot. That in turn put pressure on the rest of his game and it was all a bit of a struggle.

He had always said that practice was going well but he wasn’t bringing it to the stage. His performance at the World Championship hinted at a return to form. He lost out in a deciding leg to eventual winner Gerwyn Price but overall, his game looked in much better shape. Only four other players hit more 180’s across the tournament and he averaged 97. It was much more like the player who made it all the way to number 3 in the rankings not so long ago. That performance has whetted his appetite and it will be interesting to see how he gets on at the Masters.

It isn’t a tournament he has done well at, having lost all three of his first round matches, but this year is different. There is a place still up for grabs in the 2021 Premier League and a tournament win might just get him back in contention. Whether he does or not, he looks in a better place mentally now than even a few months ago. I don’t expect his 2021 PDC Season to be without a title of some sort.

Joe Cullen

2020 was something of an arrival for Cullen. He has been on the tour since 2011 and just three titles going into the 2020 season was a poor return. He nearly doubled his title tally last year, winning on the Euro tour and he picked up the final players championship qualifying tournament of the season. What will have pleased him more was reaching the fourth round at the World Championship. The biggest tournament on the calendar had been an annual nightmare for Cullen and he was delighted just to win a couple of matches to get the monkey off his back. He lost 3-4 to MVG in the fourth round in one of the best matches of the tournament and one which saw Cullen hit nineteen 180’s.

Cullen goes into 2021 ranked 16th in the world rankings which should help him pick up more ranking money and offer him the chance to move up the OOM. The confidence gained should free him to challenge for more titles and it would be no surprise to see The Rockstar picking up another win or two.

Stephen Bunting

A bit like Cullen, Stephen Bunting has never realised his potential since his switch from the BDO as World Champion. His confidence took a battering over the years and he was ready to quit. However, he took the step to employ the services of a sports psychologist to help him get the most form himself, and it has paid dividends. Bunting had been underperforming in his more important matches, but he is getting his confidence back and reaching the semi-final of the World Championship was his best result since winning the BDO World Championship in 2014. He is buzzing going into the new season and is a player to follow.

Brendan Dolan

The History Maker had picked up two players championships in 2019 and while he didn’t add to that tally in 2020, he had several good runs and ended up 11th in the Players Championship OOM. He was reaching semi-finals one day but still going off at 101.0 or more in the next event. He reached one final last year and two other semi-finals.

Towards the end of the season, he had been working on a small throw change, or not really a change of throw, but a slightly faster pace of play, more in line with what he does in the practice board. His scoring improved as a result and it wasn’t a great surprise to see him take Gerwyn Price to a deciding leg in the 3rd round at the World Championship. Dolan may not win any big titles, but he will cause opponents a lot of problems and another players championship title would not be a surprise, and he is always underrated by the bookies, so he will be a big price.

Ryan Searle

Heavy Metal has made steady progress in the last two or three years and is now ranked 37th in the World. He won his first PDC title last February which was no surprise. He had to beat Gerwyn Price, Michael Smith, Glen Durrant and MVG amongst others to win that day so it was no fluke. Searle is a big 180 hitter and once he gets going the only thing that is stopping him is that he loses concentration sometimes. He can get a good lead in a match and then switch off, letting his opponent back into the match. The fact that he is linking up with Gary Anderson as a practice partner can only be a big positive for Searle. He has improved in recent years thanks to working harder at the game, taking it seriously and he is ramping that up another notch in 2021.

Damon Heta

The Heat won his tour card at last year’s Q school and upped sticks from Australia to live in the UK to have a go at making it as a full-time pro. He ended his debut season ranked 52nd and won his second PDC title, players championship 15, in the Autumn Series. He is clearly a serious talent who is still very inexperienced, but he is learning fast, can score very heavily and looks to have the ability to be at least a top 16 player in the not too distant future. The bookmakers are getting wise to him and getting fancy prices about him are unlikely, but when he is showing good form, he is a player to follow.

Jason Lowe

Another player with just the one season on the pro tour but he caught the eye with numerous heavy scoring performances, and he has taken some big scalps, including Michael Smith at the World Championship. He is the kind of player who could win a player’s championship event at a big price in 2021. He looks to have done enough to not have to worry about keeping his tour card at the end of the season and he is free rolling to a certain degree.

Jamie Hughes

Yozzer ended the season on a bum note, going out at the first fence at the World Championship. It turned out that he had a bit of bone floating about in his elbow joint which made throwing painful. He had surgery on the problem in early January and while it will take some time to heal and then for him to get some serious practice in, he should be back in the groove in a few months’ time. It is easy to forget that he only got his PDC tour card in 2019 but he has already risen to 27th in the world rankings. Expect to see him back in contention later this season.

PDC 2021 Season Preview: Barney Heading For Q-School

This year’s Q school is due to go ahead in mid-February with 29 cards up for grabs. Raymond van Barneveld is an odds on shot to win one via the European Tour school but I can’t help to feel that some players, especially the players travelling in from North America might be having second thoughts about travelling. Covid-19 restrictions are changing daily all over the world and it does strike me as strange, that an event designed for players just to earn a tour card, is exempt from travel restrictions, quarantine and so on.

There is some logic for exemptions for ‘elite’ sports professionals who are tested and kept in bubbles, but there are not very many in a field of over 650 players, that can be described as ‘elite’, and two events with hundreds of players is pushing the definition of bubble to the limit.

As with everything this year and last, the word provisional must go before every event. The preview for next week’s Masters Tournament will, provisionally, be posted next Thursday.

-JamesPunt