The World Series of Darts Finals got underway yesterday in Amsterdam with wins for Luke Humphries, Gian van Veen and Josh Rock. It wasn’t all easy for the favourites though, as eighth seed Stephen Bunting falling short, as well as 6-time champion and top seed Michael van Gerwen, having missed six match darts to beat Daryl Gurney. Karel Sedlacek, Ross Smith, Ryan Searle and Dirk van Duijvenbode also joined them in the Last 16.
As day two of the World Series of Darts draws closer, the focuses switches to the bottom half of the draw. Top seed and 2024 winner Luke Littler takes on the ever-hard to beat Danny Noppert, while Australian Masters and Flanders Darts Trophy champion James Wade takes on Aussie #1 Damon Heta.
CHECKOUT DARTSWORLD’S NUMBERS AND STATS BASED ARTICLES
Ally Pally cult-hero Motomu Sakai also returns to the televised stage to take on the explosive Callan Rydz, while Australian darts icon, Simon Whitlock, takes on the rising Dutchman Wessel Nijman.
Underdog winners on this years World Series, Jim Long and Adam Leek, face off for a spot in the second round, while Raymond Smith takes on Nathan Aspinall in a match that has the potential for fireworks. Maik Kuivenhoven makes his first appearance in a televised major since the 2022 World Championships to take on the Auckland champion Jonny Clayton, though my game of the night involves the other Welshman to take the stage.
Second seed and recent World Matchplay runner-up Gerwyn Price will take on Australian rising star Brody Klinge tonight in a match-up that has the potential to throw up a major shock.
Four 100+ averages over his last six matches on the European Tour in the last two weeks signifies that Gerwyn Price is in good form, including a run to the Semi-Finals in Prague before losing to Humphries. This followed a Semi-Final and a Final down-under, as well as that run to the final in Blackpool two months ago.
Gerwyn Price has a 12-month average of 98.37, and an even better average of 98.6 for the year on big stages. The “Iceman” is in form that could win multiple major titles, and he will be looking to end Littler’s calendar clean-sweep chances this weekend.
MORE ELITE DARTS COVERAGE: Check Out Our Devoted PDC Area
Brody Klinge comes into the event having secured a spot at his maiden World Championship just five days ago in South Australia. Having pipped Raymond Smith to the number one spot on the ADA Tour, Klinge will make his debut at Ally Pally in December, as well as a return to the ANZ Premier League next weekend.
Despite only really playing opponents of a lower level than that of the players on the tour, Klinge still maintains a yearly average of over 90*, but has shown on many occasions that his ceiling is much higher.
He made his second appearance at the Australian Masters four weeks ago, and picked up wins over Ross Smith, Gian van Veen and Jonny Clayton on route to the final, where he averaged an incredible 104.56 in an 8-5 defeat to James Wade.
Klinge certainly has the levels to compete with Gerwyn Price tonight, and it would be brilliant to see the pair taking chunks out of each other for a spot in the Last 16.
DARTS PLAYER MERCHANDISE AND COLLECTABLES AT OUR DARTSWORLD STORE!
- Editors note: Klinge’s form at the recent Australian Darts Association weekend suggest he has maintained his summer form, or perhaps even steeped up again.
Images: PDC
