World Series of Darts Finals - Preview

For the second time this year a final of the World Series of Darts events will take place. During this year's World Series events were played in Dubai, Auckland, Shanghai, Tokyo, Sydney and Perth. With the exception of the event in Dubai in the other events this year's eight PDC top players - Michael van Gerwen, Gary Anderson, Adrian Lewis, Phil Taylor, Peter Wright, James Wade, Raymond van Barneveld and Dave Chisnall - were joined by local qualifiers and invited players.
Gary Anderson won in Dubai, Auckland and Tokyo, Michael van Gerwen in Shanghai and Perth, Phil Taylor in Sydney.

The eight PDC top players will be seeded in the final. As last year other players were invited to the final and four of the places went to qualifiers. While last year the invited players were either young talents or "global" players this years the list of in invitees is less convincing. Max Hopp earned is place in the tournament as the still reigning Youth World Champion though 2016 was not a great year for him. Cristo Reyes really is a "global" player and he is in quite good from. With the exception of Josh Payne the other "global" players are all well-known names who stand at the oche during televised tournaments all the time. What a pity - at least I would have preferred it when this year again young and not so well-known but really "global" players would have given a chance - for example Australian Corey Cadby or Dean Reynolds who dominated the Development Tour. But might be Reynolds couldn't be invited as he qualified for the BDO World Championship 2017. Other possibilities would have been Aaron Knox, the winner of the SDC Youth Tour or young Austrian Rowby-John Rodriguez. It was clear Kyle Anderson couldn't be invited as he has still a problem to enter the UK.

In the first round of the tournament on Saturday afternoon only qualifiers and invited players will play and there are several interesting looking matches. The winners will play Saturday night against the seeded players and it could get even more interesting as beside Michael van Gerwen the seeds recently had problems to show consistent performances. James Wade was the only one beside the Dutchman who convinced. Probably in this second round Mensur Suljovic will again play against Phil Taylor. Last weekend Suljovic won - what will happen this time? Gary Anderson played a really weak match in the European Championship last weekend - will he have recovered and be able to attack again? Raymond van Barneveld and Adrian Lewis were not in Hasselt - are they in form?
Lewis probably will not have a problem with either Hopp or Reyes but will van Barneveld be able to keep up with his likely opponent Simon Whitlock who is on the way to his old strength? Dave Chisnall probably will have to play strong Jelle Klaasen - as Kim Huybrechts is really struggling at the moment - that to be sure will be a challenge for Chisnall. Should Benito van de Pas or Michael Smith still be in last weekend's form James Wade should have no problem to prevail. Neither Gerwyn Price nor Steve Beaton will be a real test for Michael van Gerwen - but you never know. When the Dutchman is lulled in a sense of security he tends to throw his sloppy darts. Peter Wright probably will have to play against Daryl Gurney. And should Daryl Gurney be back in form to be sure that will not be an easy task.

As always this year Michael van Gerwen is the favourite to win the tournament and he has a good chance to reach the final and to defend his title. It is rather difficult to predict his opponent. The four possible candidates - Gary Anderson, Peter Wright, James Wade and Phil Taylor - are all to be rated strong opponents when in form. Should Taylor or Anderson reach the final that could well mean van Gerwen will be in trouble as both already defeated him in tournament finals.






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