Welciome back to the OpenOdds Darts Round Up, at the beginning of a week which will have to go to some lengths to top the surprises that have already happened in the first ten days of the PDC’s World Darts Championship. Defending champion and tournament favourite Michael van Gerwen has already seen his odds for the title narrow after wins over Jelle Klaasen and Ricky Evans – two relatively prosaic outings for the World Number One, but with seeds tumbling in his half of the draw, there is little reason to doubt MvG’s chances of sweeping to another title.
We’ll also pay some attention to the star who has drawn the most attention so far in the week-and-a-half of play, and ask whether Fallon Sherrock can continue her run. Having become the first woman to win a match in the PDC Championship, she has since gone on to become the first woman to win two matches; you can see how this is going, can’t you? Sherrock has so far outlasted names such as Michael Smith, Rob Cross and James Wade in the tournament – how do the bookmakers see her faring against third-round opponent Chris Dobey?
Sherrock’s first-round triumph evidently no fluke
In becoming the first woman to win a PDC Championship main draw match, Sherrock overcame Ted Evetts, a player of similar inexperience at this level. However, if people were questioning the extent of her achievement, it was quickly reinforced on Saturday as she took on a seed, in the shape of Austria’s Mensur Suljovic. Beating the Premier League star 3-1, the 25-year-old put herself into the third round. And while Dobey is another seeded player, Sherrock has shown that she has nothing to fear from him; the Englishman is seeded 22, a full 11 places below the vanquished Suljovic.
Tournament sponsors William Hill are putting themselves at some risk by offering odds of 7/2 on the popular darter from Milton Keynes. Sherrock has swiftly been taken to the hearts of the Ally Pally crowd and is sure to be cheered to the echo on Friday afternoon when she faces Dobey – and if you fancy her to get through that match, she’s also 14/1 to make the quarter-final. To do that, she’d need to get through Dobey, and then beat the winner of the crunch clash between Daryl Gurney and Glen Durrant. Although we’re very much in the land of “taking it one step at a time”, Sherrock’s rapidly-growing fanbase will be in no doubt of her potential by now.
Wright almost goes wrong in tournament bow
With every seed that falls, the chasing pack in this tournament find their hopes growing (at least, for as long as they can shut out of their minds the fact that van Gerwen exists) – and one of the many players who will have been chuffed to see the departures of Smith, Suljovic and co. was Peter Wright. That is, of course, until Wright himself came up against Noel Malicdem of the Philippines. After sharing the first four sets, the players proved tough to separate in the decider. Tied at 2-2 and 5-5, the match went to a sudden-death final leg, which was eventually won by Wright.
The Scotsman may have struggled in the second round, but he will nonetheless be playing a third-round match against Japan’s Seigo Asada this evening, before the tournament enters cold storage for three days over Christmas. While you can pick Wright for the title at 12/1 right now with Betway, those odds may get shorter if he overcomes Asada – especially with top contender Cross already gone from this section of the draw.
Huybrechts and Humphries offer solid outside bets
An unseeded player who gets through the early rounds and finds themselves in the quarters can be said to have enjoyed something of a journey – and this will certainly be true of either tricky Belgian outsider Kim Huybrechts or World Youth Champion Luke Humphries. These two have been paired together in Round 4, and one of them will make the last eight of the competition. Huybrechts has already accounted for Rob Cross in the early rounds, while Humphries outclassed Dutch hope Jermaine Wattimena. So whichever of the two ends up playing for a place in the semis will fancy their chances – against Wright, Asada, or the winner of the Dave Chisnall-Jeffrey de Zwaan showdown.
If you’re looking for a nicely-priced outsider, then Huybrechts and Humphries may offer your best value. The former is valued at 50/1 by Grosvenor, who have Humphries at a slightly shorter 40. Given the form they have already shown, there may be some sense in getting on whichever one you fancy to win their match, and potentially cashing out if they can get deeper into the competition. This World Championship is as open as they get, and no-one would be surprised if a few more big names fell before too long.
