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Friday 4 November 2016

MVG to continue winning this weekend as the Grand Slam approaches


Michael Van Gerwen has been priced as the standout favourite to go and retain his World Series tour TV title as he makes his way to Glasgow.

With ITV4 showing the coverage live from 12:45 on Saturday, 24 players will wage battle, as the top 8 seeds enter the tourney on Saturday evening with the non-seeded players facing off in the afternoon session.

With four sessions over the weekend the draw and format are thus:

Saturday, November 5

Afternoon Session (12.45pm-5pm)
First Round
Max Hopp v Cristo Reyes
Benito van de Pas v Michael Smith
Jelle Klaasen v Kim Huybrechts
Brendan Dolan v Simon Whitlock
Mensur Suljovic v Robert Thornton
Joe Murnan v Joe Cullen
Gerwyn Price v Steve Beaton
Daryl Gurney v Josh Payne

Evening Session (7pm-11pm)
Second Round
Adrian Lewis (5) v Hopp/Reyes
James Wade (6) v van de Pas/Smith
Dave Chisnall (4) v Klaasen/Huybrechts
Raymond van Barneveld (8) v Dolan/Whitlock
Phil Taylor (3) v Suljovic/Thornton
Gary Anderson (2) v Murnan/Cullen
Michael van Gerwen (1) v Price/Beaton
Peter Wright (7) v Gurney/Payne

The format for the first two rounds will be best of eleven, with the quarter-finals best of nineteen, as well as the semi-finals with the final a race to eleven.

Michael van Gerwen bar his opening round did not look too troubled as he stormed to retaining his European Championship for the third successive year. Simon Whitlock missed double 15 to miss stunning the world number one.

At the time of writing MVG is 5/6 with William Hill, Betway and Betfair sportsbook to retain his title. The overall percentage book was at around 111% for the outrights. Interestingly Gary Anderson and Phil Taylor are a point higher in their odds at 7/1 whereas earlier events in the year saw them around 11/2 or 6/1.

MVG's half of the group has four seeds that either all crashed out in round one at the European Championships or did not appear including Adrian Lewis and Raymond van Barneveld.

Adrian Lewis who will be back this weekend after missing the European Championships spoke to the PDC about the forthcoming event and had the following to say:

"I've set the bar of what people expect of me over the past few years and I do want to get back to winning big TV events," said Lewis.

"I guess it's a bit of a compliment that people assume I've had a poor year - yet I've reached the World Championship final, won the World Cup and got to the semi-finals of the World Matchplay.

"I just need that spark to set me off again. Winning a tournament gives that you that little one per cent extra bit of belief that makes all the difference.

"Michael van Gerwen is the best player in the world and is winning events for fun. He is setting the standards but he is beatable - it's up to all the other players to step it up."

*Courtesy PDC.tv

Mensur Suljovic could well be a darkhorse to continue his incredible year having made the European Championship final last weekend and will be thriving off the back of his profile victories. Suljovic could run into Phil Taylor again this weekend after Mensur stunned Taylor 10-3 in what was a truly superb performance and Suljovic showed what this meant to him as he bowed to Taylor in celebration.

With Saturday's opening sessions a race to six will mean probable first round upsets like we saw at the European Championships. With Barney and Lewis rested up, Michael van Gerwen will certainly have the edge with onstage action and could even face Whitlock again this weekend but will be in the longer format on Sunday if they both meet.

For me, I am sticking with MVG to win again this weekend and managed to get evens as an early price but expect some firms to go off short and the indications support this. With Michaels expert knowledge of his opponents and knowing how to beat them including his incredible scoring power suggests how can you justify backing against Mighty Mike?

Recommendation:

Michael van Gerwen outright - 5/6 William Hill/Betfair and Betway

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