Dimitri van den Bergh Wins World Matchplay

Dimitri van den Bergh Wins World Matchplay

Dimitri van den Bergh World Matchplay

Darts has a new star in the making after Dimitri van den Bergh saw off Gary Anderson with minimum fuss 18-10 in the final of the PDC World Matchplay last Sunday.

The 26-year-old Belgian world youth champion, who becomes the first youth winner to pick up a ranking TV title, was making his World Matchplay debut but looked increasingly confident as the week commenced in Milton Keynes.

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Van den Bergh is now the first debutant to win the World Matchplay and the first to make the final since James Wade in 2006. The two time World Youth champion is also celebrating his first senior title of any kind.

Played without a crowd, The Dream Maker continued to dance his way to the oche where, over the week, he saw off the likes of Nathan Aspinall, Joe Cullen, Adrian Lewis and Glen Durrant until he met two-time world champion Anderson in Sunday’s final.

In the match, the new world number 12 hit a 170 to level at 6-6 before pulling off and leaving The Flying Scotsman in his wake with further finishes from 132 and 124.

Out of form, Anderson had to wait until the 24th leg before he hit his solitary 180 of the contest as he was blown aside by the 200/1 pre-tournament outsider who became the first player from Belgium to win a PDC major.

The 2020 Darts Premier League season will resume for Night Seven on Tuesday, August 25 where Milton Keynes will once again play host.

That is for the next six rounds of fixtures which will all be played on consecutive nights behind closed doors at the Marshall Arena, before the season switches back to Thursday nights from September 17, where play will head out to Glasgow, Manchester, Newcastle, Sheffield and London.

Dimitri Van den Bergh is not on the list of this year’s Darts Premier League participants but has been swiftly installed as a 33/1 hopeful at bet365 for success at the Ally Pally World Championships this December.

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World Matchplay Darts Semi Final Betting Tips

World Matchplay Darts Semi Final Betting Tips

World Matchplay Darts

The big names have been tumbling all week. On Sunday we lost reigning champion Rob Cross, on Monday we lost Grand Slam champ and world number three Gerwyn Price. By Tuesday, the best player in the world, Michael van Gerwen, was eliminated at the hands of Simon Whitlock and a day later world champion Peter Wright was a goner.

Those eliminations, and quite a few others, leaves a semi-final line up which will see Michael Smith, the top seed left in the competition, take on two times world champion Gary Anderson and another which pits former BDO hero Glen Durrant against debutant Dimitri van den Bergh as the players duke it out for the next two nights in order to get their hands on the Phil Taylor Trophy.

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Has Bully Boy’s moment finally come? (9/4 Outright Winner Price)

Michael Smith takes on close friend Gary Anderson and, after years of playing the bridesmaid might finally feel like his time has come. Bully Boy is now the top seed left standing in this year’s tourney and has met his former mentor in a semi before.

The pair met in the 2018 Darts Premier League semi-final when Bully Boy went through as the underdog before losing to Michael van Gerwen the final. Should the St Helens chucker proceed again it would mean a sixth televised major final and another opportunity to finally get that elusive major title under his belt.

Smith, of course, has famously been runner-up in the World Championship (2018), World Matchplay (2019), Premier League (2018), Darts Masters (2020) and the World Series of Darts Finals (2018).

Michael Smith to win semi-final: 4/5 at bet365

Old Master Anderson To Rewind The Clock (9/4 Outright Winner Price)

As for The Flying Scotsman, it would represent a 19th PDC major final and a chance to lift his ninth TV trophy in all. And, lets be honest, few would back against him picking up his second ever World Matchplay.

Anderson has admitted to struggling while playing without a crowd in attendance, although his performance here and on the PDC Home Tour, not to mention when winning the 2018 UK Open say differently.

On that note, next Saturday, the Glorious Goodwood horse racing festival will be trialing crowds on its final day for other sports to take note so perhaps some form of darts crowd in attendance may not be so far off.

Back to Anderson though and he has so far seen off Justin Pipe, James Wade and Simon Whitlock which, coupled with his winner’s experience, make him a dangerous member of the last four. Can he produce the old magic over 33 legs against a younger, hungrier opponent? I wouldn’t bet against it.

Gary Anderson to win semi-final: Evens at bet365

Duzza Ready For PDC Glory (9/4 Outright Winner Price)

Glen Durrant is playing in his fourth PDC semi-final since joining the tour at the start of this year. Duzza needed to show all his grit and determination to hang on in there in a bad-tempered semi-final against Vincent van der Voort, where he was at one point trailing 10-5 in an initial race to 16.

The three-time boss of the BDO kept in there though and clawed himself back into the game with two back to back 23 darters to cut the gap to 12-10 after which the Dutchman lost his cool completely and shot an illegal, not to mention dangerous, underarm throw for which he really should have been penalised.

From there though, Duzza had it in the bag despite putting in a less than vintage performance. Despite that, he still managed an average of 95.21 compared to his opponent’s 93.79.

Three-time world champion Duzza knows how to win and the longer this game goes on, the more likely Duzza is to make his first-ever PDC final, something which I think he will achieve.

Glen Durrant to win semi-final: 1/2 at bet365

Dancing Dimitri Looking Sharp (5/1 Outright Winner Price)

Young long shot Dimitri van den Bergh started out at odds of around 200/1 before a dart was thrown last week and has seen off some pretty big names on his relentless march to the last four. The Belgian spent three months staying at world champion Peter Wright’s house during lockdown which must have paid off as he has outlasted Snakebite by some distance.

The uber-confident two-time world youth champion who likes to boogie his way up to the oche has gone deep before reaching four major quarter-finals in the last two years – and third in a row given his deep runs at the World Championship and UK Open at the outset of this interrupted season – so a semi appearance isn’t really that surprising.

The Dream Maker saw off Nathan Aspinall in a comfortable 10-5 victory before beating Joe Cullen 11-9 and two-time world champion Adrian ‘Jackpot’ Lewis and is unlikely to be fazed by Glen Durrant who recently admitted to being thoroughly outplayed in practise by the 26-year-old. Don’t rule out Dimitri.

Dimitri van den Bergh to win semi-final: 13/8 at bet365

QUICK GLANCE AT WORLD MATCHPLAY DARTS

Venue: Marshall Arena, Milton Keynes

Dates: 25.07.2020

Format: Best of 31, 33

Current Champion: Rob Cross

Where To Watch: Sky Sports

When To Watch: (1800 GMT)

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World Matchplay Darts 2020

World Matchplay Darts 2020

World Matchplay Darts 2020
Proper live darts returns this weekend as the second most prestigious event on the tour gets underway. Forget the Summer Series and before that the PDC Home Tour, this is Darts’ true return.

Sadly, there will be no crowd for this year’s World Matchplay Darts, which for the first time in many years, will not take place at Blackpool’s Winter Gardens but instead, behind closed doors at the Marshall Arena in Milton Keynes.

Play will run from July 18-26 and will include a star-studded field of 32 with the likes of Michael van Gerwen, Gerwyn Price, Peter Wright and Gary Anderson who have all been sorely missed.

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Michael van Gerwen is the 13/8 favourite with bet365 to win his third World Matchplay. It would be the Dutch world number one’s first Matchplay title since 2016. Last year’s champion Rob Cross is the long priced 20/1 but he has big tourney form so this price might tempt some.

World champion Peter Wright, who defeated Gerwyn Price to win the fifth and final Players Championship event of the PDC Summer Series, is the second favourite at 11/2. This is ahead of The Iceman Price himself who is priced at a reasonable 13/2.

Recent PDC Home Tour victor Nathan Aspinall is likely to have plenty of backers at 10/1, while some will like the look of 12/1 for Gary Anderson who finished runner-up in the Home Tour, once he’d fixed his home Wi-Fi issues.

Each game must be won by two clear legs, with up to a maximum of five additional legs being played before the sixth additional leg is played to sudden death. Further down the field, Michael ‘Bully Boy’ Smith is 20’s, Glenn ‘Duzza’ Durrant is 25’s and Daryl ‘SuperChin’ Gurney is a best price of 40/1, all with bet365.

World Matchplay Darts Draw

Saturday, July 18

First Round (best of 19 legs)

  • Simon Whitlock v Ryan Joyce
  • Krzysztof Ratajski v Jermaine Wattimena
  • James Wade v Keegan Brown
  • Michael van Gerwen v Brendan Dolan
  • Gary Anderson v Justin Pipe

Sunday, July 19

First Round (best of 19 legs)

  • Mensur Suljovic v Jamie Hughes
  • Glen Durrant v Jeffrey de Zwaan
  • Rob Cross v Gabriel Clemens
  • Peter Wright v Jose De Sousa
  • Michael Smith v Jonny Clayton

Monday, July 20

First Round (best of 19 legs)

  • Dave Chisnall v Vincent van der Voort
  • Ian White v Joe Cullen
  • Daryl Gurney v Ricky Evans
  • Gerwyn Price v Danny Noppert
  • Adrian Lewis v Steve Beaton

Tuesday, July 21

Second Round (best of 21 legs)

  • First-round: Nathan Aspinall v Dimitri Van den Bergh
  • Smith/Clayton v Suljovic/Hughes
  • Anderson/Pipe v Wade/Brown
  • Van Gerwen/Dolan v Whitlock/Joyce
  • Cross/Clemens v Ratajski/Wattimena

Wednesday, July 22

Second Round (best of 21 legs)

  • Gurney/Evans v Chisnall/Van der Voort
  • Aspinall/Van den Bergh v White/Cullen
  • Wright/De Sousa v Durrant/De Zwaan
  • Price/Noppert v Lewis/Beaton

Thursday, July 23

Quarter-Finals (Best of 31 legs)

Friday, July 24

Quarter-Finals (Best of 31 legs)

Saturday, July 25

Semi-Finals (best of 33 legs)

  • Winner QF 1 v Winner QF 2
  • Winner QF 3 v Winner QF 4

Sunday, July 26

  • Final (best of 35 legs)

QUICK GLANCE AT WORLD MATCHPLAY DARTS 2020

Venue: Marshall Arena, Milton Keynes

Dates: 18.07.2020 – 26.07.2020

Format: Best of 19, 21, 31, 33

Current Champion: Rob Cross

Where To Watch: Sky Sports

When To Watch: (1800 GMT)

Premier League Darts 2020 Updated Schedule

The 2020 Darts Premier League season will pick itself up again in August following its coronavirus enforced shutdown after only six rounds of fixtures. Naturally, the tour element has gone out of the window for most of the rest of this year’s event. Instead, Milton Keynes’ Marshall Arena, where this week’s World Matchplay is taking place, will host the next six rounds of fixtures on six consecutive nights behind closed doors beginning August 25.

After this, on September 17, the play picks up the same as before on Thursday nights in Glasgow, Manchester, Newcastle, Sheffield and London where the tourney plays to a climax.

When we get back underway, Michael van Gerwen will again be looking for his sixth Premier League crown which would also be his fifth in succession. Glenn Durrant is tops right now but MVG will surely be hunted down by the likes of Peter Wright, Rob Cross, Gary Anderson and Nathan Aspinall.

The challengers will return, meaning Chris Dobey, Jeffrey de Zwaan and Jermaine Wattimena all still have the chance to enjoy Premier League nights, even if the Dutch pair, in particular, will lose the chance to do it in front of home fans as Rotterdam’s doubleheader hosting has been canceled.

Second-placed Michael van Gerwen is the short-priced favourite to win the event.

Night Seven, Tuesday, August 25

  • Michael Smith v Gary Anderson
  • Michael van Gerwen v Rob Cross
  • Nathan Aspinall v Gerwyn Price
  • Chris Dobey v Daryl Gurney
  • Peter Wright v Glen Durrant

Night Eight, Wednesday, August 26

  • Gary Anderson v Gerwyn Price
  • Nathan Aspinall v Daryl Gurney
  • Michael Smith v Rob Cross
  • Michael van Gerwen v Glen Durrant
  • Peter Wright v Jeffrey de Zwaan

Judgement Night, Thursday, August 27

  • Glen Durrant v Rob Cross
  • Nathan Aspinall v Michael Smith
  • Peter Wright v Daryl Gurney
  • Michael van Gerwen v Gary Anderson
  • Jermaine Wattimena v Gerwyn Price

Night 10, Friday, August 28

Night 11, Saturday, August 29

Night 12, Sunday, August 30

Night 13 – Thursday, September 17

  • The SSE Hydro, Glasgow

Night 14 – Thursday, September 24

  • The Manchester Arena, Manchester

Night 15 – Thursday, October 1

  • The Utilita Arena, Newcastle

Night 16 Thursday, October 15

  • The FlyDSA Arena, Sheffield

Play-Offs Thursday, October 22

The O2, London

  • 2x Semi-Finals (Best of 19 legs)
  • Final
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