Ian White and Dave Chisnall are both looking to break a major duck at the PDC World Championship.
The English duo are the latest pair to be subject to our seed profiles for this year's tournament. Last time out, we previewed
Mensur Suljovic and Nathan Aspinall. All odds are provided by World Championship sponsors William Hill, and are correct at time at publication.
Ian White
Seed: 9
Age: 49
Nationality: English
Previous World Championship appearances: 8
Best PDC major performance: Semi-Finals, Players Championship Finals (2019)
Walk-on: Play That Funky Music - Wild Cherry
Odds to win: 50/1
And so we come to
Ian White - a.k.a the only 49-year-old man it's acceptable to see dabbing. The exciting news is that the Diamond has finally broken his quarter-final curse. It all ended at the very next stage of the Players Championship Finals, but it's a step forward. Stoke's number one has some decent momentum going into the World Championship.
White is certainly an enigma. His major record doesn't read like someone who's deservedly the ninth seed. But on stage in European Tour events, he's the epitome of calm. He deserves to be in the top echelon of darts, and a great World Championship would put him firmly in the Premier League discussion. The looming issue is that a potential quarter-final against Michael van Gerwen is in the offing, which doesn't bode well for a man who consistently gets upended by the Dutchman at majors.
First of all, he's got to make sure that he doesn't exit the World Championship at the second round stage for the third successive year. White will be taking on
Darius Labanauskas or Matt Edgar.Dave Chisnall
Seed: 10
Age: 39
Nationality: English
Previous World Championship appearances: 8
Best PDC major performance: Runner-up, World Grand Prix 2013 & 2019, Masters 2016, Grand Slam of Darts 2014, Players Championship Finals 2016
Walk-on: Dizzy - Vic Reeves & The Wonder Stuff
Odds to win: 28/1
As you can see from his profile,
Dave Chisnall definitely knows how to reach finals. Winning them? Well, that's a different kettle of fish.
In fairness, he's been beaten in those five finals by Phil Taylor (twice) and Michael van Gerwen (three times), which is definitely no source of shame. But even though the 39-year-old has a lot of time left, he'll want to capitalise on the fact he's reached his peak.
Chisnall is playing excellent darts consistently, and has appeared in the latter stages of most big tournaments. A winner on the European Tour and the floor, Chizzy is among the favourites for everything he enters. A portion of the bracket featuring Rob Cross and Peter Wright won't scare the 10th seed one bit. With his power scoring and an apparent immunity to pressure, a lot of people will be backing Chisnall to win the World Championship. And there's no reason why he can't.
Chizzy's World Championship journey will start with an intriguing second-round clash versus either Vincent van der Voort (who knocked him out two years ago), or Keane Barry.