Whitlock and Wright ready for marathon Ally Pally semi-final
Published:Alexandra Palace is set for another sell out for semi-final action from the Ladbrokes PDC World Championships.
Monday night’s action begins with fourth seed Simon ‘The Wizard of Oz’ Whitlock and Peter ‘Snakebite’ Wright’ facing off.
Both players will have been thankful for a day’s rest after their marathon quarter finals on Saturday were won in deciding ninth sets.
The semi final will be a best of 11 set contest and is available at evens to go the distance with over 9.5 sets.
If you fancy a tight finish you can back Whitlock to win 6-5 at 6/1 or Wright to do the same at 13/2 in the set betting.
Both players were humble after reaching the semi final stage, with Whitlock describing himself as having a “tear in his eye” and “over the moon” with his win while Wright saying “I played rubbish” describing his win over Wes Newton as a “scrappy game and I just scrapped.”
Despite their modesty, both are in great form. Whitlock has the most 180s of any player in the tournament through with 30 maximum scores.
Wright is in the form of his life with the highest three dart average in the tournament thus far at 99.41, and the most 100+ scores with 178.
However, he lacks experience at this level having never won a PDC premier event. His previous best performance was a third round loss to Phil Taylor in 2010 and the Scot would have been set for the same but for Michael Smith’s shock defeat of number one seed ‘The Power’ in the second round.
Sixteenth seed Wright grabbed his chance by beating Smith and Whitlock will similarly see this semi-final as an opportunity having lost to Taylor in his only previous World Championship final appearance.
Having come into the tournament as fourth seed, Whitlock will be looking to go one better this time and add a second premier event title.
Sensing his chance and with his experience at this level, expect Whitlock to start strongly.
However, his habit of letting leads slip that so almost cost him again in the quarters, the match should tighten over the course of the evening and make for compelling end of year viewing.
All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.
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