World Matchplay darts: Sunday match-betting preview, free tips & TV details

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Ian White is in the best form of his career but he’s one of those players punters should queue up to oppose in front of the TV cameras, and his first-round clash in the Betfred World Matchplay is no exception.

Diamond begins his campaign against Joe Cullen with plenty of people singing his praises.

But that’s nothing new. White is a prodigious performer in floor events, where he has picked up a number of titles and has triumphed in a couple of recent European events.

He’s playing as well as ever, but that doesn’t mean he will take care of Cullen, who looks a decent price.

White has made seven trips to the Winter Gardens and got past the last 16 only once. His record at the worlds and in the Grand Prix is no better and he’s never even got out of the group stage at the Grand Slam.

For whatever reason White struggles to carry his floor form onto the stage and Cullen will be acutely aware that if he can put the tenth seed under pressure, he can claim his scalp.

Cullen was a quarter-finalist in Blackpool last year, battering Gerwyn Price and Daryl Gurney before throwing it away in a thriller against Gary Anderson in the last eight – and those good vibes from 12 months ago should be a positive for Rockstar.

Jamie Hughes squeezed into the main draw and he takes on Michael Smith on his debut. Smith is a top-price 4-6 which might sound astonishing except that he’s recovering from gout and suffered a pair of first-round horror shows in this week’s two PDC Tour events, losing to Peter Hudson and Antonio Alcinas.

That said, Hughes has trouble with big doubles and will never have experienced anything like this.

Jermaine Wattimena ought to be encouraged by the fact that Mensur Suljovic is off colour, yet The Gentle boasts a 5-0 head-to-head record against him and that has to be significant.

Head-to-heads aren’t always a reliable guide but the rapid-fire Wattimena hates being held up and the canny Austrian will do everything he can to keep the Dutchman waiting.

Recommendation
J Cullen
1pt 7-4 general

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