World Grand Prix darts: Sunday's semi-final predictions, odds, betting tips, accas, order of play & TV times

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Gerwyn Price is now the hot favourite to claim his first World Grand Prix title following the exit of Michael van Gerwen last night but Dave Chisnall, Simon Whitlock and Dirk van Duijvenbode are still vying to upset those odds.

Whatever happens over the next two evenings, there will be a brand new winner of the double-start major.

Here's the verdict of our darts expert Chris Hammer, who has put up winning match tips of 3/1, 5/4, 1/1, 7/2, 4/1, 13/8, 11/10, 2/1, 1/1, 2/1, 11/10 and 5/4 from a total of 21 suggested across the opening three rounds and a treble of almost 8/1.

World Grand Prix: Sunday October 11

• TV Coverage: Sky Sports (1900 GMT)
• Semi-finals: Best of seven sets

SUGGESTED ACCA

• Van Duijvenbode (+1.5 sets) & Chisnall at 4.4/1
• Click here to build your acca at Sky Bet

Simon Whitlock (1/2) v Dirk van Duijvenbode (6/4)

• Career PDC titles: 22-0 (TV: 1-0)
• Titles this season: 0-0 (TV: 0-0)
• PDC Order of Merit: 17th - 73rd
• ProTour Order of Merit: 34th - 14th
• World Grand Prix best: RU (2017) - SF (2020)
• World Grand Prix Wins/Losses: 14/10 - 3/0

Nobody on the planet could have predicted this semi-final at the start of the week.

Simon Whitlock hadn't even qualified and even if he had, would anyone have backed him to win Michael van Gerwen's quarter AND 200/1 pre-tournament outsider Dirk van Duijvenbode coming through Gary Anderson's?

The debutant, who has struggled to recapture any of his encouraging pre-lockdown form since the season restarted in July, was as big as 18/1 to get this far before a dart was thrown, but upset the odds to see off Mensur Suljovic and Dimitri Van den Bergh in the first two rounds before derailing the Flying Scotsman's hopes of winning the World Grand Prix for the first time in his illustrious career.

He'd never got to the last 16 of a televised event before this week, let alone the semi-finals but to be fair, he's only managed to play in the World Championship (2016), UK Open (x4) and European Championship (2015) prior so this could well be just the start of a big climb up the rankings for the world number 73 and into more big majors.

Apart from that awful match against Suljovic, in which they both averaged in the low 70s, van Duijvenbode has got here on merit with a pair of superb performances to defeat the two players who contested the World Matchplay final - averaging 90 against Van den Bergh and 94 against Anderson. Neither opponent played poorly during the 3-1 wins.

To do this in uncharted waters and with no experience of this format is commendable and now he has a superb opportunity to reach a career-changing final.

Whitlock, who admits he's treating this tournament as a "free shot" after his fortunate entry at the expense of Adrian Lewis, is a very fair favourite after averaging over 100 twice in his three games, including 100.29 in last night's stunning demolition job of MVG, who managed to win just two legs out of the 11 played in a 3-0 whitewash.

It was his second victory over the Dutchman in successive majors having thrashed him 11-4 at the World Matchplay and he's certainly riding the crest of a wave with no pressure on his shoulders.

Until now.

His mentality could finally change because whether he admits it or not, losing at this stage to a player of van Duijvenbode's current status will hurt a lot and potentially but a completely different feeling on his week.

"It's a great opportunity for both of us," said Whitlock. "Dirk's played some great darts to get through so far and I'm definitely not taking him lightly. I've been in the final before and I'm just going to give everything. I know I can beat any player on my day - I feel as good as anybody, I'm playing probably as well as I ever have."

That is probably true, but while he should win if he plays like he has been doing, I really think tension will contribute to this match being much closer than you might expect.

Prediction: 4-3

Suggested bet: Match to have over 20.5 legs, highest checkout to be over 120.5 and over 8.5 total 180s at 11/10

Dave Chisnall (2/1) v Gerwyn Price (2/5)

• Career PDC titles: 5-14 (TV: 0-3)
• Titles this season: 0-5 (TV: 0-1)
• PDC Order of Merit: 10th - 3rd
• ProTour Order of Merit: 12th - 1st
• World Grand Prix best: RU (2013, 2019) - SF (2020)
• World Grand Prix Wins/Losses: 19/9 - 6/5

Dave Chisnall has used up most - if not all - of his nine lives to get this far but if he decides to turn up from the start of the match and not when 2-0 down, there's every chance he can reach his third World Grand Prix final.

Of the four players left in the field, Chizzy would obviously be the most popular champion having never won a televised major that his career so richly deserves, and if he can go one step further it'll be the first time he isn't facing one of the two greatest players of all time for the title.

He was crushed by Phil Taylor (6-0) and Michael van Gerwen (5-2) in his two previous World Grand Prix finals (2013, 2019) while the Power edged him 16-13 in the 2014 Grand Slam of Darts, with MVG denying him in the 2016 Masters and 2016 Players Championship Finals.

Even in his two televised World Series finals - Perth 2016 and Shanghai 2017 - he came up against van Gerwen while in his formative BDO days his 2010 world title dream was ended by the legendary Martin Adams.

On top of that, in five of his six major semi-finals he's played MVG (x3), Gary Anderson and eventual 2011 UK Open winner Robert Thornton. The other occasion - at last year's World Series of Darts Finals - he lost a last-leg decider to Danny Noppert.

In short, any notion of him being some kind of 'choker' in big majors is a complete misnomer. He's unfortunately come up against the wrong player at his best times.

I always imagined one of those 'not a dry eye in the house' occasions if Chisnall were to ever win a major so it would be sod's law that the time he does win one, there's no fans there to celebrate the moment. Won't stop us shedding a tear at home though, will it?

Anyway, there was a point to this waffle. The dirty work in the opposite half of the draw has been done, and now he 'just' needs to beat arguably the current best player in the world in a format that he's been so good at down the years to become a favourite for a major title.

That's got to give him some kind of mental boost that he's never had before. He may well be feeling more belief at this stage of a competition than he ever has before.

Apart from when he fell 2-0 down to both Ryan Joyce, who missed seven match darts to win 3-1, and Joe Cullen, the St Helens man has played brilliantly. He thrashed Glen Durrant with a 102 average then ended up with a mark of 91 against Joyce after blitzing the deciding set 3-0.

While his error-strewn clash with Cullen was more of a battling comeback, he did throw three sparkling 150+ checkouts and end up with a creditable 87.5 after such a slow start.

Gerwyn Price is obviously a fair favourite as he chases a fourth title in five events, including a second major, but Jermaine Wattimena, Kim Huybrechts and Jeffrey de Zwaan haven't really tested him yet. His tournament average is 90 and it'll be interesting to see how well he copes on those starting doubles if Chizzy applies the pressure we know he can.

Prediction: 4-3

Suggested bet: Dave Chisnall to win the match, score over 4.5 180s and checkout over 105.5 at 3/1

Click here for full 2020 World Grand Prix draw and schedule

Related links

• 2020 World Grand Prix draw and schedule
• 2020 Premier League fixtures & results
• 2020 PDC event calendar & results
• 2019 PDC event results
• Sky Bet's darts odds

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