2016 World Matchplay 2nd round: Shocks on the cards on Tuesday night

Sam Barnard, Assistant Sports Editor | July 18, 2016

2016 World Matchplay

MvG stars in first 2nd round matches

As the 2016 World Matchplay reaches its second stage, we’ve already witnessed a couple high-profile exits, most notably sixth seed and former champion James Wade who was shocked by Mervyn King.

Kim Huybrechts, Stephen Bunting and Vincent van der Voort have also suffered early eliminations, but top names such as title holder Michael van Gerwen, Adrian Lewis and Peter Wright all made it through and feature on Tuesday evening.

Read on for Coral’s preview of the first four second round matches…

Robert Thornton v Dave Chisnall

First up, Thornton and Chisnall tussle after hard-fought 10-7 victories over Josh Payne and Benito van de Pas respectively.

Chizzy has been made the 4/11 odds-on favourite as he’s won their last three meetings, two of which came at major televised tournaments this year – the Premier League of Darts and Masters.

Although the Thorn (21/10 chance) is ranked higher than Chisnall, it’s unlikely he has never enjoyed this event and in fact only claimed his first World Matchplay win against Payne at the seventh attempt.

Back Chizzy, therefore, at 15/8 to be King of the Oche (player to win match, most 180s and highest checkout. If any of the markets are tied, bets will be settled as losers) and reach the quarters here for the fourth straight year.

Peter Wright v Ian White

An intriguing match-up between Wright and White, another Scottish-English battle on the night, is next on the oche, and the former will be out for revenge after narrowly losing to the latter in their most recent meetings at the Gibraltar Darts Trophy.

Snakebite won their previous three duels, including at The Masters earlier this year, which is why he is the 4/9 odds-on favourite, but Diamond (7/4) could take him the distance.

Odds of 8/1 say that Premier League star Wright will win 11-9.

Michael van Gerwen v Kyle Anderson

Surprisingly, defending champion and dominant world number one Van Gerwen has lost half of his four meetings with Aussie Anderson, and most recently at the Austrian Darts Open only last month.

The Original is a tasty 8/1 price to shock the Dutchman once more, but over this longer form of the game Mighty Mike (1/16) should be able to come out on top.

Van Gerwen is now the even-money favourite to retain the World Matchplay title.

Adrian Lewis v Gerwyn Price

Another match that has the potential to see a genuine shock is this final showdown of the night between 2013 runner-up Lewis (2/7 favourite) and rapidly rising star Price (13/5).

The Iceman notably caused an almighty upset in this event last year when he defeated Jackpot at this same stage 13-11, and so is 14/1 to edge him once more – this time an 11-9 scoreline.

Lewis, though, is still the tournament fourth-favourite at 14/1, behind just Van Gerwen, Gary Anderson and Phil Taylor.

Related

Check out our dedicated darts section for more World Matchplay content.

Coral’s top tip: Price is a tasty 13/5 to beat Lewis again.