PDC World Championship Preview - Day 9, Evening Session

Round two of the World Championship is well under way. Gerwyn Price, Vincent van der Voort and Dimitri van den Bergh all sealed their place in the last 16. But tonight, the big guns come out, hoping to fire their way into the third round. The first, third and fifth seeds are all in action at a packed Ally Pally, but all the focus will be on the lone unseeded figure - one who is making waves in his 22nd tilt at the world title.

Opening second round games don't get much better. It says something about the other two evening matches that a meeting between the fifth seed and a major champion is the least anticipated. But neither Mensur Suljovic nor Robert Thornton will mind. This one should be a real battle. 28th seed Thornton was perhaps expecting more resistance from Brendan Dolan in the first round, but still showed real class in a 3-1 win. A 98.67 average and six 180s saw the former UK Open and Grand Prix champion through to the second round.
Suljovic will surely force Thornton to bring out his best or go home, though the Austrian wasn't at his brilliant best in the first round. Kevin Painter was seen off 3-0, but a sub-par performance against mediocre opposition did not inspire confidence among Suljovic's fans. But Mensurmania will sweep the Ally Pally once more and give one of 2017's biggest breakout stars a shot in the arm. More consistent scoring will help the Gentle no end. His opponent will definitely be a Thorn in his side, but the Scot needs to make sure erratic darts are at a minimum, and that his temperament doesn't get the better of him.

No matter what happens in the World Championship, one of the fondest remembered stories will be of a 63-year old causing an almighty shock and commanding the adoration of the Ally Pally crowd. For Paul Lim, it can hardly even be described as "rolling back the years" - he has been routinely disappointing in this tournament. In fact, his defeat of Kai Fan Leung in the preliminary round was among his best. The stunning 3-2 defeat of Mark Webster with a 95.98 average was, statistically speaking, his greatest ever game on the big stage. Lim has hit 10 maximums already, and can be a threat if he finds the red bit so readily again.
The Paul Lim story will most likely come to a swift end, however. Had he been playing a seed outside the top five, another shock might have been on the cards. Even Gurney, Suljovic and Wright have their soft spots. But Gary Anderson comes into his own every December, and reaches a standard that only Michael van Gerwen has the arsenal to better. Anderson averaged 100.93 against a surprisingly poor Jeff Smith in the first round; he knows that a repeat performance will probably be enough. The crowd won't be on his side tonight, however. They'll be dreaming of another Paul Lim miracle right until the final dart is thrown.

The early rounds of the World Championship tend to resemble a green stampede, as lower-ranked opponents crumble while Michael van Gerwen barrels into the latter stages. In his last five visits to the Ally Pally, his only pre-semis defeat came in that all-time great encounter with Raymond van Barneveld, in the 2016 third round. Christian Kist averaged a ton in the first round - a triumph, given his recent woes - but Mighty Mike swatted him aside with a 106.17 average. Last year, van Gerwen never averaged lower than 103. If he does the same again this year it would take a performance of Barney-esque brilliance to halt his title charge.
James Wilson does not seem like the player to cause the shock of all shocks. To start with, his World Championship record - both in the BDO and PDC - is poor, for a player of his quality. Krzysztof Ratajski was seen off in the first round, but it was no walk in the park for the newly-dubbed Lethal Biscuit. He is a well-known prolific maximum-hitter, but against van Gerwen it is the consistent two-treble visits that keep the game alive. Van Gerwen dropped a set against Kist; he won't be in any mood to allow Wilson similar respite from the green onslaught.