By LadyD
Smith vs Clemens
Smith was less then impressive in his quarter final win, but the fact he could beat an in form Bunting while below his best will encourage him. Clemens on the other hand couldnt have been any more impressive. It has gone a bit under the radar how well Clemens actually played given the antics with the headwear from Price, but Clemens was consistently around the 100 average and his scoring was so impressive. At one stage he’d had just 3 trebleless visits and that was about 4 sets into proceedings. I think there will be a bit more expectation on Clemens to follow that up, and how he deals with that pressure will determine how close this one is. You’d expect Smith to have the advantage of the crowd but given how many Germans have been filling the palace, that probably offers no advantage to either player. I do expect Smith to win this, but I said the same yesterday and was surprised to that’s not to say Clemens is going to take defeat lying down, but Smith should extend his World Semi Final record to 3-3.
Prediction: Smith 6-2 Clemens
Bets:
Smith to win and hit most 180’s and a 100+ finish each - 1/1
Smith to win 6-2 or 6-3 - 15/8
Smith to checkout on d20 in every set - 10/1
Van Gerwen vs Van den Bergh
I have tried to get MVG beat at almost every hurdle in this tournament and he seems to get better and better, his demolition of Dobey was an absolute masterclass and looked like MVG at his best. Dimitri has had an up and down tournament standard wise, but at his best he is more then capable of hitting enormous averages, and there is few better 180 hitters then Dimitri at his best. Yesterday Dimitri had 4 180’s after 5 sets but ended with 13 in 8 sets, showing when he gets going, he really is prolific on the treble 20. This match very much depends on which Van den Bergh turns up because we can safely assume MVG will be around 100 average at least. I’m going to take a chance that Dimitri shows up and turns this into a close contest. MVG has also hit a 180 in 15 of his last 18 sets, while Dimitri hit at least 1 in 7 out of 8 sets yesterday, so I will be looking at a small play in that market too.
Prediction: MVG 6-4 Van den Bergh
Bets:
MVG to win with VdB most 180’s - 6/5
MVG to win, hit over 9.5 180’s and CO over 120.5 - 11/10
Van den Bergh to hit 13+ 180’s and 2 or more 100+ checkouts - 3/1
Both players to hit a 180 in every set - 20/1
A d8 checkout in every set - 100/1
Comments