The champion again with problems?
Slowly but surely the crunch time at the PDC World Darts Championship starts in the Alexandra Palace in London. From Wednesday on the first round of 16 are on the schedule. Unfortunately with Gaga Clemens and Florian Hempel the last two remaining Germans in the field have already withdrawn. Nevertheless, there are a few top pairings.
World number one and defending champion Gerwyn Price will fight for a place in the quarter-finals on Wednesday. His opponent is Dutchman Dirk van Duijvenbode. Both throwers have had problems so far. The reigning champion also has a lot of room for improvement.
The Iceman is the first contender for the title at the Ally Pally. Even though not everything is going well this year, he recently won the Grand Slam of Darts. If he brings his performance, the Welshman will be hard to beat and also in our opinion between Gerwyn Price and Dirk van Duijvenbode the forecast has to go clearly to a win of the favourite
The titan from the Netherlands has already beaten the world number one this year. So he will certainly fancy his chances of coming out on top again on Wednesday. But for that to happen, everything has to go right and between Gerwyn Price and Dirk van Duijvenbode we are rather reluctant to bet on the Dutchman.
Gerwyn Price – Statistics & current form
Current Position Order of Merit: 1
Seeded List Position: 1
Gerwyn Price has already achieved the first goal at the World Championships. After reaching the last 16, he will certainly remain number one in the Order of Merit after the World Championships. Now the Iceman can fully concentrate on the further tasks that should lead him to the title defence. But if he plays like he has so far, it will be very difficult. He has won eight of the last nine matches.
Air up for the Iceman
After a walkover in the first round, the Welshman had to stretch himself against England’s Ritchie Edhouse in the second round but came back from a set down to win 3-1. In the third round it went over four winning sets and the match against the Belgian Kim Huybrechts was the duel of this World Championship par excellence.
Gerwyn Price was on the brink of elimination several times but always managed to pull himself out of it. The match was mainly marked by some messy exchanges between the two throwers. After the 3:3 after sets, it was 5:5 in the decider after legs. It came to the decider, in which the Welshman had the better nerves and won in the end with 4:3 sets.
Once again, the psychological warfare was successful and also in the round of 16 the Iceman will try to upset his opponent with big emotions. But it is also clear that the Welshman needs a better average and better double odds to make it worthwhile to play the odds on a win for the defending champion between Gerwyn Price and Dirk van Duijvenbode.
Last matches of Gerwyn Price:
World Darts Championship
12/27 2021 – Gerwyn Price 4 – 3 Kim Huybrechts
12/15 2021 – Gerwyn Price 3 – 1 Ritchie Edhouse
Players Championship Finals
11/27 2021 – Gerwyn Price 8 – 10 Brendan Dolan
11/27 2021 – Gerwyn Price 6 – 1 Martin Schindler
11/26 2021 – Gerwyn Price 6 – 3 Jason Lowe
Dirk van Duijvenbode – Statistics & current form
Current Position Order of Merit: 17
Position in the seed list: 17
Dirk van Duijvenbode has a regular job back home, but a somewhat unusual one, because the Titan is also an aubergine farmer. Maybe he will get the rest on the fields to be able to play strong and concentrated at the big tournaments, possibly also on Wednesday against the primus of the scene.
Titan’s open bill
The Dutchman celebrated his greatest success on the tour in 2020 at the World Grand Prix, when he was beaten by Gerwyn Price in the final. Last year he made it to the quarter-finals at the World Championships. But if van Duijvenbode wants to get there again this year, he will have to jump the biggest hurdle possible at the moment. Before the match between Gerwyn Price and Dirk van Duijvenbode, we are not making any predictions about a repeat of the Dutchman’s success.
The Dutchman has also not been completely convincing so far in the World Championship at the Ally Pally. Twice he was on the brink of elimination, but managed to pull himself out of the loop in the decisive sets. He won 3:2 against the Russian qualifier Boris Koltsov and 4:3 against Ross Smith from England.
The average of the Dutchman is in the range of 90 at this World Championship, which is not enough to pass the big challenges. Yet he managed ten 180s against Ross Smith alone. But in the checkouts, the Titan only landed at 32.69 percent. The aubergine farmer will definitely have to improve in this respect if he wants to have a chance in the last 16.
Last matches of Dirk van Duijvenbode:
World Darts Championship
12/27 2021 – Ross Smith 3 – 4 Dirk van Duijvenbode
12/22 2021 – Dirk van Duijvenbode 3 – 2 Boris Koltsov
Players Championship Finals
11/26 2021 – Dirk van Duijvenbode 5 – 6 Ryan Meikle
Players Championship 30
11/04 2021 – Darius Labanauskas 6 – 5 Dirk van Duijvenbode
11/04 2021 – Dirk van Duijvenbode 6 – 2 Danny Baggish
Gerwyn Price – Dirk van Duijvenbode Direct comparison / H2H balance
Eleven times Gerwyn Price and Dirk van Duijvenbode have met at the oche so far. In a direct comparison, the Welshman is more than clearly ahead. The most important match was the final at the World Grand Prix last year in Coventry, when the Iceman clearly prevailed with 5:2 sets. In the summer, however, Dirk van Duijvenbode was able to return the favour at the Players Championship in Milton Keynes.
The two opponents have not yet played each other at the World Championships. The last encounter was not so long ago. In the finals of the World Series of Darts this duel took place at the end of October in the second round. In that match Gerwyn Price won 6:2 legs.
Gerwyn Price – Dirk van Duijvenbode Tip
The defending champion is still not in the form to become world champion again. Up to this point, however, it has been enough to hold his own twice with problems. Especially with the Iceman, we know that he can still turn onto the winning road in close matches with his mental strength and psychological warfare.
But we think that the world number one will not have to use his toolbox to the full on Wednesday, because the titan from Holland has not been convincing at the World Championships so far either. His average at the Ally Pally is rather average. Therefore, we expect to be successful in the duel between Gerwyn Price and Dirk van Duijvenbode with a tip on the Welshman
We even expect it to be a clear affair this time. Sometimes even the champions need tough matches to find their way into a tournament. That should be the case for the Iceman by now.
