Anderson to freeze once again in Winter Gardens

Day four
Sky Sports Action, 7pm Tuesday

Bleary-eyed Gary Anderson admitted last week to never feeling comfortable on the Winter Gardens stage and after surviving a near-thing against Christian Kist on Saturday the Scot can expect more trouble in round two of the World Matchplay.

Anderson’s next obstacle is Daryl Gurney, a player in finer form than Kist, and the Northern Irishman can give the two-time world champ the runaround.

Anderson, who looked worn out against Kist as the exertions of a hectic globe-trotting summer schedule took their toll, has yet to make the final in Blackpool. In eight previous visits he has also suffered four second-round exits.

There is a case to be made for Gurney, who has won two of his last three showdowns against the Scot, the most recent at the US Masters just over a week ago.

And Gurney must be full of self-belief after getting to the final in Las Vegas, a fifth final appearance in 2017. He also made the semis of the UK Open in March.

Gurney also had good reason to be apprehensive before his first-round tie with Benito van de Pas on Sunday having been hammered 12 months earlier by Ian White on his Winter Gardens debut. But he showed commendable spirit to come from 9-7 down to beat the Dutchman 11-9.

Anderson’s lack of any kind of an attachment to the Winter Gardens and the fact that Gurney is on the up and has beaten the Scot twice this year, means at the very least the outsider can cover a 3.5-leg spread.

Another game to look forward to is Peter Wright against Cristo Reyes, unless of course Snakebite plays as poorly as he did on Saturday night when he squeezed past James Wilson.

The fact that he still found a way to win after throwing poorly for so long shows how far Wright has come, and also shows that Reyes, who wasn’t given a game by Robert Thornton and was therefore able to ease his way unchallenged to a ton-plus average, shouldn’t expect any more freebies.

The reigning UK Open champion ought to win and it’s also a match that should produce more than nine 180s. It’s best of 21 legs in round two with the scope to go further, and the 9.5 mark seems to be weighed too heavily towards the fact that Wright threw only a couple against Wilson.

That, though, was an unusually low return for Wright. Reyes, meanwhile, pinged five against Thornton and that was in just 13 legs – there will be many more than that this evening.

In Tuesday's other two second-round tussles, Mensur Suljovic claims just a 2-9 record against Justin Pipe, yet everything points to the Austrian winning a pretty unwatchable tie. Darren Webster, conqueror of James Wade, is made slight favourite against Steve West which looks about right.

Recommendations
D Gurney +3.5
2pts Evens Coral, Ladbrokes
Over 9.5 180s in P Wright v C Reyes
2pts 5-6 Ladbrokes