PDC World Championship 2020 First Round match preview: Ryan Joyce vs Jan Dekker

The World Championship is now mere hours away, and we've reached the end of our round one previews.

We've covered all 32 first round ties, with Ryan Joyce versus Jan Dekker the last of the lot. Number 31 was Justin Pipe against Benjamin Pratnemer.

Facts and figures

Match time/date: 13:40, December 19

Head-to-head record: First meeting

Previous meeting: N/A

Best major performance this season: Last 64, Players Championship Finals & UK Open (Joyce); Last 64, UK Open (Dekker)

Previous PDC World Championship appearances: Joyce 1, Dekker 3

Best PDC World Championship performance: Quarter-Finals, 2019 (Joyce); Second Round, 2018 & 2019 (Dekker)

Preview

It's an interesting quirk of fate that the first two players ever to play a winner of the dedicated women's qualifiers should meet this year in the 2020 World Championship. Ryan Joyce and Jan Dekker were thrust into the spotlight a year ago; this time, they play the tie that wraps up the first round amid much less fanfare. They'll also not have to deal with a crowd actively opposing them.

Last year's World Championship was a dream debut for Joyce. The Geordie star took out Anastasia Dobromyslova, then stunned Simon Whitlock. Alan Norris and James Wade also fell before him, before a quarter-final exit against Michael van Gerwen. The £50,000 prize has set Joyce up nicely though, and a few decent floor performances have reinforced a very happy middle ground in the PDC Order of Merit. He threw away a gilt-edged chance to beat John Henderson in the last 64 of the Players Championship, however, and will be determined to do better here.

Jan Dekker cut a frustrated figure as he watched Lisa Ashton fly into a 1-0 lead a year ago. The Dutchman recovered to win, but unlike Joyce, didn't turn it into a sustained run. His form in 2019 hasn't exactly been stunning either, bar a couple of quarter-finals on the floor. If he's to set up a World Championship second round meeting with Jonny Clayton, Dekker will need to pull out the sort of performance that's seen him succeed in the past, rather than the disjointed showings that have marred his present progress.

Prediction

Neither has set the world alight in 2019, but form-wise, Joyce edges it. His game is a little more solid than Dekker's, even if there's less scope for the spectacular. He'll fancy this, and will also see Clayton as vulnerable. Joyce 3-1 Dekker is the last of our 32 predictions. We're not going to look back on how bad they turn out to be.

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