The 2024 PDC World Darts Championship is finally getting underway this Friday at Alexandra Palace and SportsLens have previewed every match-up to open proceedings plus the order of play.
PDC World Darts Championship Day 1 Preview
The wait is over and we’ll have first round action from the 2024 PDC World Darts Championship on our screens from 7pm on Friday night, with Kevin Doets and Stowe Buntz set to kick-off the fun.
7:15pm: Kevin Doets vs Stowe Buntz (Round One)
Buntz is North America’s newest darts star taking to the United Kingdom, following an impressive showing in the recent Grand Slam of Darts where he beat two-time World Champion Peter Wright, reigning UK Open champion Andrew Gilding and the established Stephen Bunting.
He faced Bunting once again in the quarter-finals before being knocked out, earning himself a tidy £25,000 payday in the process. He’s making his competition debut alongside another rookie in Dutchman Kevin Doets.
Doets has enjoyed a few impressive wins on TV this year, recently beating Jose De Sousa to reach the last 32 of the Players Championship Finals in November. He also sent Martin Lukeman home on the way to making the last 32 at the UK Open.
He beat a number of big names on the Players Championship circuit this year including Nathan Aspinall, Michael van Gerwen, Dimitri Van den Bergh, Rob Cross, Gerwyn Price and the rising star Gian van Veen.
8:15pm: Cameron Menziez vs Rusty-Jake Rodriguez (Round One)
In the second game of the night, Cameron Menzies takes on Rusty-Jake Rodriguez for a spot in the second round. The Scotsman’s best finish at the World Championship came last time out, reaching the last 64 after one win.
Rusty-Jake recently got the better of Menzies when they faced off at Players Championship 29. Last year, he lost narrowly to Chris Dobey in the second round after beating Ben Robb 3-1.
This one is another close matchup, with the bookies’ slightly favouring Menzies at 4/7 with Rusty-Jake 11/8. It’s a match that could easily go either way, but Rodriguez could present a good value underdog if his wrist injury doesn’t flare up.
9:15pm: Simon Whitlock vs Paolo Nebrida (Round One)
The night’s third match sees an utter mismatch between Simon Whitlock and Paolo Nebrida. Whitlock, who has earned over £2.5m across his career, goes up against 8/1 shot Nebrida who has spent most of the year on the Asian Tour.
The Filipino lost in the first round last year to Danny Jansen and his chances of making it through this time are extremely slim. Whitlock made the world final in 2010 and has won both the European Championship and World Cup.
‘The Wizard’ is 1/14 to win and this should be a routine outing for him. He hasn’t made it past the second round of the World Championship in his last two attempts, so there’s a good deal of pressure on him to perform well.
📊 Averages in ranking tournaments for the whole of 2023 – the top 6 heading into the World Championship 👀
🏴 Anderson 98.99
🧊 Price 98.81
❄️ Humphries 98.63
🟩 MvG 97.65
🇳🇱 van Veen 96.56
🏰 Ross Smith 96.53 pic.twitter.com/UtS1xCm1z3— Darts Orakel (@DartsOrakel) December 7, 2023
10:15pm: Michael Smith vs Kevin Doets/Stowe Buntz (Round Two)
To finish the night, the reigning World Champion ‘Bully Boy’ will begin his defence of the title in the second round against the winner of Kevin Doets vs Stowe Buntz. Michael Smith hasn’t been at his best this year and he’s got plenty to prove.
The world number one broke out in 2023 with Grand Slam and World Championship triumphs to eclipse eight TV final defeats including two at Alexandra Palace in 2019 and 2022. He loves this stage.
His year hasn’t quite gone to plan. He lost in the last 64 of the Players Championship Finals recently to Richard Veenstra and failed to make it out of his group in his Grand Slam defence.
However, two highlights include making it to the semi-final of the Premier League and World Grand Prix. Before his Grand Slam exit, he explained how he felt he had been ‘lazy’ this year but changed that with 36 hours of practice with Nathan Aspinall across two weeks in the build-up.
It didn’t prevent him crashing out at the hands of James Wade in their Group A decider, but it was a message from Smith that he’s ready to start putting the work in again after a celebratory year where he finally landed a world title and wanted to enjoy it.
Playtime is seemingly over and Smith will hope to give the ‘Ally Pally’ crowd something to cheer about to finish Day 1 of the 2024 PDC World Darts Championship.
PDC World Darts Championship Day 1 Order Of Play
7:15pm: Kevin Doets v Stowe Buntz
8:15pm: Cameron Menzies v Rusty-Jake Rodriguez
9:15pm: Simon Whitlock v Paolo Nebrida
10:15pm: Michael Smith v Kevin Doets/Stowe Buntz
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