Snakebite continued his hot hand of form to make his way safely through the first round of the World Matchplay. Next up for Peter Wright is a duel with Australia’s Simon Whitlock. The Wizard was pushed hard in his opening match. The Australian will be a considerable underdog for this second round tie.
Peter Wright v Simon Whitlock Odds*
Peter Wright 2/7
Simon Whitlock 11/4
* (Betting Odds were taken from bet365 on July 23rd 2019 at 8:28 p.m.)
Snakebite on the charge
Coming into the tournament Peter Wright was in fantastic form, racking up titles. So naturally, he was expected to carry some good momentum through to this tournament. He went up against Vincent van der Voort in the first round, one of the trickier opponents that he could have pulled out the draw. Wright was fairly untroubled in a 10-5 victory.
Backing up his favouritism in this is one along with his current form, is his recent positive form at the World Matchplay itself. In his last four efforts at the Winter Gardens, he has had one runner up spot, two semi-final exits and a quarter-final. Not bad at all and the scoring form that he is in, a Wright -3.5 handicap is at 10/11* (Betting Odds were taken from bet365 on July 23rd 2019 at 8:28 p.m.).
Head to head
Form their previous meetings it is Wright who holds a 17-9 record in the head to head against Whitlock. That’s a 65% win rate for Snakebite.
Can the Wizard put on a magic show against Wright?
Simon Whitlock, who is the 11th seed for this year’s World Matchplay, ground out a 10-8 win over Scotland’s John Henderson in the first round. The Wizard is one of these players in the game who just now and again puts things together. He made one final last season, getting to the showcase match of the European Championships where he lost. His one major tournament title on the PDC came at the 2012 European Championships.
His record at the World Matchplay, considering that he hasn’t won the title before, is not all that bad. He was a semifinalist in 2010 and 2014, which he has been to the quarter-finals on three other occasions. One of those was last year where he was hammered by Peter Wright. In his opening game of this year’s World Matchplay, Whitlock took a three dart average of 94.99 which was considerably lower than his opponent’s which was over 101. He just had the finishing power to get out.
Predictions
Snakebite has been in irresistible form recently and there is not likely to be a strong enough challenge coming from Whitlock to upset him. The Wizard does bring his top darts to the table now and again, but there is little sign of him pulling off an underdog success here.
