The 2017 William Hill Darts World Championship has reached its climax with an epic final set for Tuesday morning as Michael van Gerwen will take on Gary Anderson for the sport’s grandest prize.
It’s the number one and two seeds. The undisputed best player in the world taking on the two-time defending champion. The script has been written perfectly for an almighty clash of these tungsten titans.
So far the World Championships has produced some of the greatest darts you will ever see.
Gary Anderson has been superb and now finds himself on the cusp of an amazing hat trick of World Championships considering the quality of the fields he has been up against.
Anderson kicked off his title defence with routine victories over Mark Frost and Andrew Gilding, before averaging 107+ in a brilliant win over the talented Benito van de Pas in the third round. Anderson then backed that up against Dave Chisnall in the quarter-finals with another quality victory with a 105+ average and a record 21 maximums.
That left Anderson to take on Peter Wright in the semis. Our pre-tournament pick of Wright had been in fine form throughout the tournament but perhaps wasn’t at his absolute best in the semis. Anderson was again clinical and didn’t give Snake Bite the opportunities he needed to stay in the contest. Anderson averaged 103+, with 15 maximums and four ton-finishes, which was too strong as he reached the final with a 6-3 victory.
On the other half of the draw, world number one Michael van Gerwen has been his usual dominant force. MVG dropped only four sets in his first four matches against Kim Viljanen, Christo Reyes, Darren Webster and Daryl Gurney, to set up a showdown for the ages against Raymond van Barneveld in the semis.
Of course, Barney was responsible for MVG’s elimination from this tournament last year in one of the most entertaining matches ever seen at the Ally Palley. MVG was out for revenge in 2017 and that’s exactly what he got. Statistically, it was the greatest ever match in World Championships history as MVG set a new record average of 114.05 on his way to a 6-2 win. The scoreline doesn’t reflect how well Barney played as he also averaged 109+ but even his very best was just no match for Mighty Mike.
If you watched Gary Anderson play in the preliminary rounds, you would argue that he is going to be hard to stop from winning his hat trick of World titles. That is, until you watched MVG play. He is simply at a whole different level. Throwing a 140 is a bad visit against MVG! As we saw with Barney in the semis, even if Ando plays his absolute best, it might not even be good enough if MVG is on his game. It’s going to take mistakes from MVG for Anderson to have a chance. It could happen, but how can you bet against it? MVG just doesn't make mistakes.
There’s little value in taking MVG head-to-head at $1.29 so I would recommend a play on the set line of -2.5. Anderson can pinch a few sets but I can’t see him taking 5 sets from MVG in the best of 13 set format.
TIP: Michael van Gerwen win -2.5 sets vs Gary Anderson @$1.80 at CrownBet
I also expect the standard to remain very high for this final. Sure there will be increased pressure, but MVG loves the pressure and often it motivates him to rise above. I am tempted by the average lines of both players but we’ll stick with MVG who has averaged above this line all tournament.
TIP: Michael van Gerwen average OVER 103.5 @$1.83 at Sportsbet
