Defending champion Gerwyn Price (13/10 to win World Grand Prix) feels he must improve after coming from a set down to beat Mervyn King 3-1 in the second round of the World Grand Prix on Tuesday.
World number one Price is the overwhelming favourite to retain his title at the Morningside Arena in Leicester following the shock first round exits of title rivals Peter Wright, Michael van Gerwen and Gary Anderson on Monday.
However, ‘The Iceman’ was in danger of suffering the same fate as he dropped the opening set of his clash with King, but he was ultimately able to come through, although he was far from satisfied with his overall performance.
“I thought I played particularly well for most of the game but made a couple of slip-ups, and the main thing is that I won,” Price told the PDC website.
“I think Merv pinched the first set and that really hurt me. I had to dig deep and it wasn’t the best performance and I need to improve on that game.”
Price’s reward for reaching the quarter-finals will be a clash with Dave Chisnall, who came from two sets down to overcome Ross Smith 3-2 in another of Tuesday’s second round matches (Price 4/11, Chisnall 11/5 Match Betting).
Stephen Bunting also booked his place in the last eight of the event for the first time since 2014 with a 3-1 victory over world number four James Wade, who became the latest big name to suffer an early exit from the competition.
Bunting will now face fellow Englishman Ryan Searle in the quarter-finals on Thursday after he came through 3-1 against Luke Humphries (Bunting 11/10, Searle 8/11 – Match Betting).
Wednesday evening will see the remaining second-round ties reach a conclusion, with Danny Noppert’s reward for beating five-time champion Van Gerwen being another all-Dutch encounter with Vincent van der Voort (Noppert 4/6, Van der Voort 6/5 – Match Betting).
Wright’s conqueror Rob Cross will be up against Krzysztof Ratajski in another of Wednesday’s highlights (Cross 11/10, Ratajski 8/11 – Match Betting), while the only seed remaining in the bottom half of the draw, Jose de Sousa, will take on Jonny Clayton (De Sousa 11/10, Clayton 8/11 – Match Betting).
The opening match of the night will see Ian White, who overcame Anderson in the first round, take on Lithuania’s Darius Labanauskas (White 8/13, Labanauskas 13/10 – Match Betting).
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