PDC World Championship 2020 First Round match preview: Mickey Mansell v Seigo Asada

Seigo Asada and Mickey Mansell will face off during the afternoon session on the first Wednesday of the 2020 PDC World Championship.

Their midweek tie will be the 26th of the first round clashes. We’re previewing all 32 of them – it was Ron Meulenkamp against Ben Robb. The schedule for every one of those 32 games, and the rest, can be found here.

Facts and figures

Match time/date: 13:30, December 18

Head-to-head record: First meeting

Previous meeting: N/A

Best major performance this season: Last 32, UK Open (Mansell); Semi-Final - World Cup of Darts (Asada)

Previous PDC World Championship appearances: Mansell 5, Asada 3

Best PDC World Championship performance: First Round, 2013, 2015 & 2019 (Mansell); Second Round - 2019 (Asada)

Preview

An intriguing tie will be second on the afternoon session at the 2020 PDC World Championship as we see Seigo Asada take on Mickey Mansell.

Asada has become a real danger and last year reached the second round where he lost to James Wade in a match itself which courted controversy levelled at his opponent. 'The Ninja' from there once again dominated the PDC Asian Tour alongside Lourence Ilagan and also reached the semi-finals of the World Cup of Darts alongside Haruki Muramatsu but despite that again came through the Japanese qualifier giving good friend, Yuki Yamada a spot.

He has also announced his intention to play at PDC Q-School as well in January and join the tour full time as the rise of Asada continues who has gone from a player who many watched at Lakeside flatter to deceive to being a real outsider at the Palace.

His opponent Mansell on the other hand hasn't had the greatest year only reaching one Quarter-Final on the Tour which got him his last position in the ProTour Order of Merit qualifiers.

He faced Jim Long last year and only averaged 74.45 which got him a fine from the DRA for not playing to the best of his ability in what some would call one of the worst games of the tournament. His record is poor at the Palace and his form going into it isn't great either.

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Prediction

Asada will be expected to come through this without a great deal of fuss, he is a player who is really on the rise and with Keegan Brown potentially coming after who is in the low end of the seeds, 'The Ninja' has real scope for a big run this year and to eclipse his previous best. Mansell could be an outside bet if he came into this tournament with any degree of form but he hasn't which means a Asada 3-0 Mansell scoreline is what is being predicted in this instance.