Michael van Gerwen takes on Chris Dobey in the first game of the semi finals at the Alexandra Palace, telecast commencing at 630am Friday morning AEDST on Channel 507 Fox Sports, streaming on Kayo Sport in Australia, and broadcasting in New Zealand at 830am local time on Sky Sports. It is also on PDC TFV for subscribers.
The first match pointed to is the quarter final match between the two that finished 5 set to 0 to van Gerwen two years ago. Since then, there have been two matches to nothing between the two, both to Dobey (albeit 6-0 in legs.) Head-to-head it has been 6-5 since that match, van Gerwen edging ahead in that head-to-head in European Tour 7 in May this year with a 6-1 victory. This is Dobey’s first semi-final appearance in this tournament, although he is a former Masters winner so he has felt what it is like to be at this stage, again not on the grandest stage of them all though. He has also had other semi final appearances at big events, in 2019 he made that stage in both the players championships final and the World Grand Prix. In 2022 he was in the last four of the European Championship and then in the following year won in the semi finals of the World Masters (going on to win the whole thing.) Van Gerwen was last at this stage in 2020 but in the eight years between 2013 and 2020 he only missed the semi finals once, in 2016 when he was bumped out by his great Dutch rival Raymond van Barneveld in the third round. His record at semifinals at this tournament is five wins and two losses, his last lost being 2018 when he lost to eventual winner Rob Cross. Dobey is currently 10th in the world on the live PDC rankings but a win here, coupled with a Bunting loss, would see him finish in the top four in the world. Van Gerwen will still be in the top four after this tournament no matter what occurs but for a man who was talked about as winning hand fulls of world championships in the last decade he is favourite to make it back into a final of this events.
The second semi-final sees Luke Littler take on Stephen Bunting. The latter made the most of Peter Wright coming off such a high in the round of 16 to take care of Wright comfortably, aided by the Scotsman’s slow start. Littler did not start slowly against Nathan Aspinall as he had in previous rounds but should he start slowly this will be Bunting’s opportunity. Post match Littler said he was feeling more comfortable on the stage and like last year now which indicates he is ready for the next match. Last year Littler took on another former world champion, in Rob Cross, and some thought it would be the end of the road for the youngster. The young man who had averaged over 100 in all his matches bar two in that tournament defeated Cross with over 106 (Cross averaged 102 but lost 6 sets to 2.) This year Littler has only dropped under three figures once and has overall averaged over 100 in 75% of all his matches at the worlds (9/12.) Bunting has been here before as well, losing to Gerwyn Price in 2021 at this stage. He lost to eventual World Champion that year, Gerwyn Price, six legs to four. Last year Bunting lost to MvG 4-0 in the fourth round so part of his story might be taking the final out against the Dutchman. It will be interesting to see how the support splits for this match but it should not really play into the match as both players are usually so unperturbed by crowds. They have played each other twice this year, both players championship matches, both going to a final leg decider. Littler won their first encounter 8-7 in the final of Players Championship 20 in September. A month later Bunting won 7-6 in Players Championship 24 at the semi-final stage, Bunting losing to Wessel Nijman in the final of that event. Littler will go in favourite, as he has been all this tournament, and is deserved, but a slow start, combined with a calm Bunting (he cannot afford to quiver if he gets match darts either) and the match could go the other way. The only guarantee is at least one British man will make the final, continuing the record of that tournament having at least one British man in the final. It will also be the fourth consecutive final where at least one of the combatants are English.
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