The 2022 PDC World Championship resumes on Monday following a three-day break over Christmas, with defending champion Gerwyn Price (7/2 – to win title) among the players in third-round action.
Monday 27th December Order of Play:
Afternoon session:
Ross Smith v Dirk van Duijvenbode – 12:40
Michael Smith v William O’Connor – 13:45
Florian Hempel v Raymond Smith – 15:00
Evening session:
James Wade v Vincent van der Voort – 19:10
Gerwyn Price v Kim Huybrechts – 20:15
Jonny Clayton v Gabriel Clemens – 21:30
World number one Price has had to wait a long time to return to the oche, as it is 12 days since he booked his place in round three with a 3-1 success over Ritchie Edhouse.
The Iceman faces Belgium’s Kim Huybrechts for a place in the last-16 and his opponent, who reached the quarter-finals at Ally Pally in 2012, is expecting a classic best of seven contest (Price 1/6, Huybrechts 4/1 – Match Betting).
“This is going to be a classic one,” Huybrechts told reporters. “He’s going to give it, I’m going to give it. I just have to be there, I just have to be prepared. I will prepare myself the best now ever.
“He likes to give it the big one and I like to give it the big one so I think we’re going to have a classic game up there.”
That heavyweight tussle is the penultimate match of Monday’s action, with five other third-round ties taking place, beginning with Dirk van Duijvenbode’s clash with Ross Smith.
The latter is through to the last 32 of the Worlds for the first time after getting the better of Stephen Bunting in round two (Smith 10/11, Van Duijvenbode 10/11 – Match Betting).
Michael Smith produced one of the most dominant displays of the second round and the 2019 runner-up meets William O’Connor in another of the afternoon matches (Smith 1/4, O’Connor 3/1 – Match Betting).
Meanwhile, Florian Hempel, who toppled world number five Dimitri Van den Bergh last time out, takes on Australian qualifier Raymond Smith (Hempel 4/9, Smith 7/4 – Match Betting).
The evening session begins with what looks set to be a heavyweight showdown between fourth seed James Wade and Vincent van der Voort (Wade 4/7, Van der Voort 7/5 – Match Betting).
Monday’s finale sees World Grand Prix winner Jonny Clayton face the challenge of improving German Gabriel Clemens (Clayton 1/6, Clemens 4/1 – Match Betting).
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