Yet another day with two sessions is in front of us. Daryl Gurney and Dimitri van den Bergh will be playing.

Raymond van Barneveld was the second of the big names that had to be send out of this year’s tournament. Today, more favorites will take on the stage, where it will be interesting to see if they can live up to that, or follow Barneveld and Peter Wright out of the tournament.

Afternoonsession

Robert Thornton v Daniel Larsson
Daniel Larsson qualified via his second place on the PDC Nordic & Baltics rankings for 2018. Although he has had a good season on the Nordic and Baltic tour, he has not had much experience with the big stage this season as he managed to qualify for a single European Tour-event. It is therefore a completely different routine that he has to face when he meets Robert Thornton. However, the scots have not had the best season where a quarterfinal at Players Championship 20 is his best result.

Ricky Evans v Rowby-John Rodriguez
Ricky Evans has been noticed this season by using ‘Baby Shark’ as a walk-on song, but in addition, there has also been some good results for the young Englishman. He has thus achieved four quarter-finals during the Players Championship Tour, as well as a final at this year’s Dutch Darts Championship. Rowby-John Rodriguez has played a sensible season. He has participated in several Players Championship events, where he has played some nice tournaments, but the best results are on the Development Tour, where he has won a single tournament, reaching a final and a semi-final.

Krzysztof Ratajski v Seigo Asada
The last Asian, in the form of Seigo Asada, is also on stage today. Seigo Asada has qualified by winning the Japanese qualifying tournament. In addition, he also finished second in the Asian Order of Merit. A place he has achieved by winning three tournaments on the Asian Tour, as well as a final and a handful of quarter-finals. Krzystof Ratajski comes with his best season in the back. He especially impressed by becoming among the last 16 in the UK Open, winning both the Players Championship 21 and 22. Only Michael van Gerwen and Gary Anderson have performed the same in this season.

Darren Webster v Vincent van der Voort
Darren Webster has not won any silverware this season, yet it has become a fairly season for the Englishman. He has thus achieved the quarter-finals at both World Matchplay and European Championship. In addition, the season has also offered a semi-final at the Players Championship. Vincent van der Voort played a pretty nice match yesterday in the first round. With a average of 94.06 he won 3-1 against Lourene Ilagan. Darren Webster and Vincent van der Voort have met each other ten times, where there have been six wins for Vincent van der Voort.

Eveningsession

Steve Lennon v James Bailey
James Bailey attended the first four Challenge Tour-events this season, but it did not turn out to be great results. On the other hand, the Australian has done quite well on DPA’s Australian tour, which has led to two tournament wins. In addition, he also won Oceanic Masters, which at the same time secured him the ticket for the World Championship. Steve Lennon has also had a regular season. The young Irish reached the final at the Dutch Dart Masters, and the quarter-finals at the Players Championship Finals. Steve Lennon has much more experience from the big stage than James Bailey, but several games in this tournament have shown that it does not necessarily mean you will win.

Ron Meulenkamp v Diogo Portela
Dutch Ron Meulenkamp has reached two quarter-finals at the European Tour this season, he also reached a quarter-final and a semi-final at the Players Championship. He is going up against Diogo Portela, which many remember from this year’s World Cup, where Portela and Bruno Rangel beat Per Laursen and Henrik Primdahl from Denmark. Diogo Portela, who has mostly competed at the Challenge Tour and at the Players Championship-events, has not had that great a season, but he won the second Challenge Tour of the year.

Dimitri van den Bergh v Chuck Puleo
Dimitri van den Bergh has played a beautiful season in which he regained the Youth World Championship-title and reached the quarter-finals of this year’s Grand Slam. In addition, he also reached the semi-final at this year’s World Cup together with Kim Huybrechts. Chuck Puleo, alongside Darin Young, has dominated the CDC Tour in North America. However, Chuck Puleo drew the longest straw when it came to ensuring the first place on their rankings, as well as the World Championship ticket.

Daryl Gurney v Ross Smith
Daryl Gurney goes into this tournament with lots of confidence. Gurney won the Players Championship Finals less than a month ago. A victory that fell at a dry spot, as the rest of the season has not been impressive for Daryl Gurney. He is heading up against Ross Smith, who beat Paul Lim in the first round. He did so with a fine average of 91.89, but the average pobably has to be raised a bit if he is going to have a chance against Daryl Gurney this evening.