The World Grand Prix semi-finals take place in Dublin on Friday night so here's our previews, predictions and statistics for both matches.
Just four players remain in this unique double-start set-play major at the Citywest Hotel, with Michael van Gerwen hot favourite to go on and lift this trophy for the fourth time in his career.
Standing in his way tonight is defending champion Daryl Gurney while the other semi-final could be a classic between Peter Wright and Mensur Suljovic.
Scroll down below for tonight's full running order, Chris Hammer's match-by-match previews, statistics & predictions as well as his main suggested bets, accumulator and Sky Bet's RequestABet offer.
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World Grand Prix: Friday October 5
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- TV Coverage: Sky Sports (7pm BST)
- Semi-finals: Best of 7 sets, players must start and finish each leg on a double
Peter Wright (8/11) v Mensur Suljovic (11/10)
HEAD-TO-HEAD RECORD
- Overall: 7-9
- 2018 meetings: 0-5
Wright 7-10 Suljovic - Champions League, Sept
Wright 13-17 Suljovic - World Matchplay, Jul
Wright 4-6 Suljovic - Danish Open, June
Wright 2-10 Suljovic - German Darts Masters, May
Wright 1-7 Suljovic - Premier League, March - Other televised meetings: 1-3
Wright 10-9 Suljovic - German Darts Masters, Oct '17
Wright 1-3 Suljovic - World Grand Prix, Oct '17
Wright 8-10 Suljovic - Champions League, Sept '17
Wright 8-11 Suljovic - European Championship, Oct '16
TOURNAMENT STATISTICS (Wright left, Suljovic right)
- Sets Won/Lost: 8/2 - 8/2
- Legs Won/Lost: 27/11 - 27/11
- 3-dart Average: 90.41 - 89.95
- 180s: 13 - 10
- 100+ checkouts: 4 - 5
- Highest checkout: 124 - 129
- Checkout %: 45.76% (27/59) - 54% (27/50)
ROUTES TO THE SEMI-FINALS
(Click here for full tournament results)
Peter Wright
- First round: 2-0 v Steve West
(Ave: 98.02, 180s: 1, Doubles: 6/10) - Second round: 3-0 v Jermaine Wattimena
(Ave: 91.64, 180s: 2, Doubles: 9/24) - Quarter-finals: 3-2 v James Wilson
(Ave: 87.64, 180s: 10, Doubles: 12/25)
Mensur Suljovic
- First round: 2-0 v James Wade
(Ave: 84.27, 180s: 0, Doubles: 6/14) - Second round: 3-0 v Ian White
(Ave: 92.42, 180s: 4, Doubles: 9/14) - Quarter-finals: 3-2 v Gerwyn Price
(Ave: 91.19, 180s: 6, Doubles: 12/22)
Peter Wright is favourite mainly because of his higher world ranking and status in the game.
But you only have to look at their head-to-head record to see why Mensur Suljovic must be backed at odds-against prices.
Sure, sequences are there to end but he really does have Snakebite's number right now and four of his five wins in 2018 have come on big televised stages, including the Champions League of Darts, World Matchplay and the Premier League.
If you also compare their respective performances in Dublin this week, Wright's standards are generally sliding except for his crazy 180 count of 10 against James Wilson while Suljovic has surpassed him.
Both players were taken to deciding sets in their quarter-finals games but showed the fighting character to overcome the scares and keep alive their hopes of reaching their first World Grand Prix final.
I think Suljovic will do another job on him but to enhance the odds to 2/1 I'm going to roll in the Austrian throwing five or more 180s in the match, which should be more than doable, especially if there's at least five sets.
My other bet for this match is four or more 100+ checkouts at 5/2. They've managed nine between them so far and their lethal finishing gives this a great chance of coming in.
Prediction: 2-4
Scroll down for the second semi-final
Michael van Gerwen (1/6) v Daryl Gurney (4/1)
HEAD-TO-HEAD RECORD
- Overall: 16-2
- 2018 meetings: 6-0 (1 draw)
MVG 10-7 Gurney - Champions League, Sept
MVG 8-4 Gurney - Shanghai Masters, June
MVG 7-6 Gurney - Dutch Darts Masters, May
MVG 6-6 Gurney - Premier League, March
MVG 7-3 Gurney - German Darts GP, March
MVG 7-2 Gurney - Premier League, Feb
MVG 6-1 Gurney - UK Open qualifier, Feb - Other televised meetings: 4-0
MVG 11-8 Gurney - World Series of Darts Finals, Nov '17
MVG 8-6 Gurney - US Darts Masters, July '17
MVG 5-1 Gurney - World Championship, Dec '16
MVG 11-2 Gurney - Players Championship Finals, Nov '15
TOURNAMENT STATISTICS (MVG left, Gurney right)
- Sets Won/Lost: 8/1 - 8/2
- Legs Won/Lost: 25/7 - 26/12
- 3-dart Average: 96.59 - 89.98
- 180s: 7 - 8
- 100+ checkouts: 2 - 4
- Highest checkout: 104 - 112
- Checkout %: 51.02% (25/49) - 53.06% (26/49)
ROUTES TO THE SEMI-FINALS
(Click here for full tournament results)
Michael van Gerwen
- First round: 2-0 v Steve Lennon
(Ave: 92.97, 180s: 1, Doubles: 6/7) - Second round: 3-0 v Darren Webster
(Ave: 91.84, 180s: 5, Doubles: 9/22) - Quarter-finals: 3-1 v Dave Chisnall
(Ave: 101.54, 180s: 1, Doubles: 10/20)
Daryl Gurney
- First round: 2-0 v John Henderson
(Ave: 88.36, 180s: 1, Doubles: 6/9) - Second round: 3-2 v Ron Meulenkamp
(Ave: 89.02, 180s: 2, Doubles: 11/28) - Quarter-finals: 3-0 v Gary Anderson
(Ave: 92.72, 180s: 5, Doubles: 9/12)
As you can see from the head-to-head stats above, Daryl Gurney has a dreadful record against Michael van Gerwen while he's never defeated him on the televised stage.
That said, he's not been too far away in recent meetings and I witnessed first hand at the Champions League of Darts two weeks ago how despondent he was to blow a great chance to beat him.
MVG was below-par on that occasion - during another major he failed to go on and win this year - but the world number one looks on ominous form in Dublin and I doubt he'll be off his A-game for long enough periods during a long best-of-seven sets showdown for Gurney to capitalise.
Van Gerwen posted an average of 101.54 in a high-class match with Dave Chisnall on Thursday night which was the 10th highest in the tournament's history although had Chizzy managed to finish as well as Gurney did against Gary Anderson, it could have been much closer.
But it's hard enough scoring heavily against the Dutchman when he's on fire, let alone holding your nerve on both the starting and finishing doubles to apply enough pressure.
The time to get him, as we've seen at the UK Open and World Matchplay, is the early rounds. In the longer format of the latter stages, it's increasingly tough.
One area of the game Gurney can 'win' is on the 180s, with MVG only managing seven so far across his three games. Sure, the Northern Irishman has only hit one more but we know he can be supremely prolific.
Therefore I'm taking the 9/4 for MVG to win and Gurney hit most maximums
Prediction: 4-2
Friday's suggested darts bets
- Suljovic to win & hit 5+ 180s at 2/1
- Four 100+ checkouts in the match at 5/2
- MVG to win & Gurney hit most 180s at 9/4
- Click here to place your bets
Friday darts double
- MVG to win & Gurney hit most 180s and Suljovic to beat Wright at 5.8/1
- Click here to build your acca
