Will Machine Gun live up to his role as favourite?
Darts is a big thing in the Netherlands. After the 35 Englishmen the Dutch have the biggest contingent with ten participants at the World Darts Championship in the Alexandra Palace of London. On Friday with Jermaine Wattimena already the third Dutch thrower will enter the tournament. The Machine Gun will play in the first round against Russian Boris Koltsov.
However, the first round of the World Championship is only played in the format “best-of-three-sets”. If you are not fully concentrated, a match can be over faster than you would like. That’s always the chance for the underdogs, who should have no chance against the favourites in longer matches.
Jermaine Wattimena will not want to be accused of having slept through the start of the World Championship. His compatriot Dirk van Duijvenbode awaits him in the second round. If The Machine Gun wins on Friday, then at least one Dutchman will still be in the game between the holidays.
In the match between Jermaine Wattimena and Boris Koltsov, the forecast goes relatively clearly to an Orange victory. Boris Koltsov is no stranger to the big stage, but the Russian has yet to make a lasting impression on fans. Should The Viking fail early again at the World Championships on Friday, he will have missed the opportunity to make a name for himself.
Jermaine Wattimena – Statistics & current form
Current Position Order of Merit: 37
Seeded position: unseeded
Jermaine Wattimena is still one of the younger throwers at this World Cup. The Dutchman is 33 years old and can be counted among the extended world elite. But he still waits for his first really good results in the big tournaments. In the PDC World Championship his development in the last years goes slowly but clearly upwards.
No winning streak
For the eighth time the Dutchman will take part in the season’s highlight of the PDC. In 2019 and 2021 he reached the third round. That will be The Machine Gun’s aim again this year but as an unseeded player the opponents in the possible next rounds won’t be easier.
Jermaine Wattimena is sitting a bit between the chairs at the moment. The last matches this year at the Players Championship have shown that. He is still far away from the strongest players. Clear defeats against Mensur Suljovic or most recently Rob Cross at the Players Championship finals confirm this assumption.
His record of the last months is rather mixed. Since August he has a record of 7:9 wins in 16 matches. It is interesting that the last time the Dutchman had two wins in a row was about half a year ago. It sounds like you have to place your bet on the Dutchman advancing far in this tournament before the World Cup opener between Jermain Wattimena and Boris Koltsov.
Last matches of Jermaine Wattimena:
Players Championship Finals
11/26 2021 – Rob Cross 6 – 2 Jermaine Wattimena
Players Championship 30
11/04 2021 – Jermaine Wattimena 2 – 6 Mensur Suljovic
11/04 2021 – Jermaine Wattimena 6 – 1 Jason Lowe
Players Championship 29
11/03 2021 – Jermaine Wattimena 3 – 6 Jason Lowe
11/03 2021 – Jermaine Wattimena 6 – 3 Wayne Jones
Boris Koltsov – Statistics & current form
Current Position Order of Merit: 117
Seeded position: unseeded
Boris Koltsov has secured his ticket to the World Championship as a qualifier of the EADC, the Euro Asian Darts Corporation. It’s only the second time the Russian will take part in the title tournament after 2015. As number 117 in the Order of Merit his ambitions in the Alexandra Palace will be very limited.
Waiting for the first World Championship victory
2015 he managed to beat Japan’s Haruko Muramatsu at least in the pre-qualifiers before The Viking had to bow out in the first round against England’s Kevin Painter. Now he will try again to get his first win in the main draw of the PDC World Darts Championship though he is one of the big outsiders.
That is not only because the Russian is 80 places behind his Dutch opponent in the Order of Merit. His current form also gives little cause for optimism. Boris Koltsov has won only two of his last eleven matches. In this condition, his entrance music “Moscow Calling” will probably only be played once at the Ally Pally.
The Russian was mainly successful in tournaments in his home country. He won the Salavat Yulaev Cup this year. For the first time he managed to win a PDC Tour Card via the Qualifiying School. But if we sum up all the facts, the odds on a win for the Russian in the duel between Jermaine Wattimena and Boris Koltsov should rather not be played
Last matches of Boris Koltsov:
Players Championship 30
11/04 2021 – Raymond van Barneveld 6 – 3 Boris Koltsov
Players Championship 29
11/03 2021 – James Wilson 6 – 3 Boris Koltsov
11/03 2021 – Maik Kuivenhoven 4 – 6 Boris Koltsov
Players Championship 28
11/02 2021 – Boris Koltsov 3 – 6 Nick Kenny
Players Championship 27
10/22 2021 – Damon Heta 6 – 3 Boris Koltsov
Jermaine Wattimena – Boris Koltsov Direct comparison / H2H record
Jermain Wattimena and Boris Koltsov have only met three times at the oche. All three duels took place in the 2019 Players Championship. However, the head-to-head comparison favours the Russian, who has a 2-1 advantage after victories. Boris Koltsov secured narrow victories in both Wigan and Barnsley.
In October 2019, the last duel so far was on the agenda. This time Jermain Wattimena won clearly in Dublin and was happy about a successful revenge. In the end the score was 6:2 after legs.
Jermaine Wattimena – Boris Koltsov Tip
Jermaine Wattimena is a regular at the PDC World Darts Championship and has been selling himself better and better at the Ally Pally in recent years, albeit with setbacks. Last year he reached the third round. As 37th in the Order of Merit the Dutchman just missed the seedings and has to go a hard way if he wants to go far in the title tournaments.
On Friday, however, he is the clear favourite against Russia’s Boris Koltsov. Although the Dutchman does not have a good record in the last few months either, the Russian’s is much worse.
However, the Russian has won two out of three matches against The Machine Gun. But in darts it always depends on your own performance and there we see the Dutchman relatively clearly in front. That’s why we decided to play the betting odds on a handicap win (-1.5 sets) for the Dutchman in the duel between Jermaine Wattimena and Boris Koltsov
