2016 World Series of Darts Finals: Tournament preview
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2016 World Series of Darts Finals
- Saturday, November 5th – Sunday, November 6th
- First session starts: 13:00 BST
- Braehead Arena, Glasgow
- Live on ITV4
MvG out to retain yet another title
Darts season continues after a thrilling European Championship the previous week that saw Michael van Gerwen defeat surprise finalist Mensur Suljovic to retain the title, and the Dutchman now has another to defend.
Following another successful World Series of Darts tour where eight of the sports’ top names travelled the globe to play in Dubai, Auckland, Tokyo, Shanghai, Perth and Sydney, a second edition of the Finals takes place again in Glasgow.
Read on to view our World Series of Darts Finals tournament preview…
Van Gerwen to face Price or Beaton
Odds-on title favourite with Coral Van Gerwen (8/11) beat Peter Wright in last year’s final, after a thrilling 11-10 battle and, along with the rest of the eight seeds, the duo receive byes to the second round.
Mighty Mike’s first test will be against the winner of Gerwyn Price (8/11 favourite) and Steve Beaton (11/10), both of which he’s faced and defeated in major tournaments in the past months.
As for Phil Taylor (11/2 title chance), he may get a chance to get revenge on Suljovic (40/1), who completely upset the odds when knocking out the all-time great in the European Championship quarters.
The Power lost 10-3 that day, despite averaging over 104, but The Gentle still has to get past Robert Thornton (7/4), who he is odds-on at 4/9 to beat.
Snakebite (25/1 tournament shout), who also lost to super Suljovic in the semis last time out, is likely to go up against Daryl Gurney, who is 1/2 to knock out young Englishman Josh Payne (8/5).
Gary Anderson will be determined to put on a show in front of his home crowd, after going out to Terry Jenkins in last year’s edition in just the second round, while he was also smashed 6-0 by James Wade in the European Championship.
Luckily for The Flying Scotsman (13/2 third-favourite), though, he’s been handed perhaps the most favourable draw with one of Joe Cullen (1/2 match favourite) or Joe Murnan (8/5).
Barney and Jackpot back after Euro absence
There are a couple of crunch clashes in this year’s first round, as Jelle Klaasen (4/6) takes on Kim Huybrechts (6/5), young guns Benito van de Pas (4/5) and Michael Smith (evens) lock horns and Brendan Dolan (15/8) takes on Simon Whitlock (2/5).
Raymond van Barneveld is among the unlucky seeds to face one of the aforementioned, as he’ll take on either The Wizard or History Maker.
Barney failed to qualify for the European Championship, so it will be intriguing to see if he’s fresh or rusty after missing out on the Belgium event.
Adrian Lewis also didn’t gain enough points to take part in that tournament, and will be against one of Max Hopp (6/5) or Cristo Reyes (4/6).
Wade and Dave Chisnall are the remaining seeds, and the duo will take on Van de Pas or Smith, and Klaasen or Huybrechts respectively.
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