PDC World Championship 2020 preview - Can Price go all the way?

Vansdirect preview the biggest event in darts, the PDC World Championship. Can our very own Gerwyn Price go all the way?

 

PDC World Championship 2020

The 2020 William Hill World Darts Championship is here with Michael Van Gerwen beginning his title defence against Jelle Klassen or Kevin Burness on the opening night of action. The biggest event in darts will see 96 players competing across 28 sessions from December 13th 2019 - January 1st 2020 for the Sid Waddell Trophy, with £500,000 on offer to the winner.

 

Michael Van Gerwen

Van Gerwen won his third World Championship in 2019 and will face a tricky opening tie against either former World Championship semi-finalist Klaasen or Northern Ireland's Kevin Burness. A winner of an impressive seven TV titles in 2019, MVG goes into the tournament as a heavy favourite and firmly believes he is the one to beat:

 

"If I'm at my very best the other players cannot beat me, but you have to show it on the stage and you can't make mistakes. Whoever is on my path I want to destroy, simple."

 

The first round of the tournament will be played across the opening 11 sessions featuring 32 qualifiers from the ProTour Order of Merit, which is based on prize money won across 43 non-televised events in 2019 and 32 International qualifiers.

 

Raymond Van Barneveld

Among those playing in round one is darts legend and five times World Champion, Raymond Van Barneveld who'll face-off against Darin Young in the opening game of his farewell tournament before retirement.

Van Barneveld who opens his campaign on Saturday, spoke of his disappointing year:

 

"It's been a really hard last year, a disaster year you could say, There have been some games where I play well and I think 'I can still do this', but in the next match it just doesn't happen and I don't know why. That's why I'm retiring, I can't take the pain anymore."

 

 

Despite this, RVB remains confident that a good run in the World Championship is not beyond him:

 

 

"I still have the vision that I've saved the whole year to play well at the World Championship and hopefully it's going to be a good run."

 

 

Barney is one of two players to hit two nine darters at the World Championship and if a player is to manage that at this year's event they will pick up a £100,000 bonus.

 

 

Each session of first round action will also feature a second round match, with the 32 seeded players waiting to face the first round winners.

 

Gerwyn Price

Amongst the seeded players heavily tipped to go far in just his sixth World Championship is Vansdirect sponsored Gerwyn Price, who has never previously been past the last 16 stage at Alexandra Palace.

 

2019 has been comfortably the best year in darts for the Welshman, who retained the Grand Slam of Darts title with a 16-6 drubbing of Peter Wright in the final, as well as reaching two other televised finals. This has seen him heavily tipped as a potential winner of the PDC World Championship on New Year's Day 2020.

 

Despite the understandably high expectations, Price is focused on getting going in the tournament and isn't looking past the first match as of yet:

 

" I just want to make sure I win my first game at the Worlds because as everyone knows I don't have the best record there, I just want to get through my first game in and then anything can happen, the first round is always the hardest but I'll give it a good shot. My goal is to win my first game, have a decent Christmas and then enjoy being in the tournament rather than just watching it."

 

Price will face either William O'Connor or Marko Kantele in the second round.

 

Glen Durrant

There are 22 debutants at Ally Pally this year, one of which is Glen Durrant who's hoping to cap off an impressive first year in the PDC with a strong run at the biggest tournament of them all. Duzza won his PDC tour card in January after lifting his third BDO World Championship and has reached the semi-finals of three televised events in his debut PDC campaign.

 

"It's been a dream first year and now I want the cherry on the cake with a good run at Alexandra Palace," I'm super excited, Ally Pally is going to be really special and in truth I've had one eye on it since the World Matchplay finished in July. I've done really well in my first year, whatever targets I've set I've exceeded them and to be honest the World Championship feels like a bit of a bonus for me."

 

Durrant faces a potential banana skin tie in the second round against Damon Heta or Jose De Sousa.

 

Nathan Aspinall

The World Championship can be the springboard to success for many darts players, this is certainly the case with Nathan Aspinall who made an incredible run to the semi-finals of last year's event. It was a brilliant Ally Pally debut for the Asp who was a 500/1 shot going into the tournament, he has since won the UK Open and US Darts Masters during his climb to 12th in the World.

 

"I've got some happy memories from last year and hopefully this year I can be more relaxed from the start, perform well straight from the off and hopefully go one further," I've had a really good year. The last couple of months hasn't gone how I'd have like it to have gone but I've still been playing well. I proved that with hard work, self-belief and dedication you can achieve a lot of things in the world of darts."

 

Aspinall, will meet Andy Boulton or Danny Baggish in round two.

 

The third round will be split either side of the Christmas break, whilst the fourth round will be played on December 27th and 28th ahead of the quarter finals across two sessions on December 29th.

 

The semi-finals will be help on Monday December 30th followed by the final on Wednesday January 1st, as the World Champion 2020 is crowned after 16 days and 28 sessions of darts.

 

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