The U. K. Open is one of darts' most exciting tournaments. Hosted by Bolton's Reebok Stadium, this is a fitting venue, a football stadium, for the tournament dubbed the F. A. Cup of darts. It sees players from all around the nation given the chance to qualify in pubs, to gain their chance to walk onto the stage in Bolton, with a potential clash against The Power as the greatest opportunity. The qualifiers enter in the first round, as PDC's top 32 players from their own qualifying tournaments enter in the third round, which begins on Friday. The tournament draw is totally random, so any of the qualifiers who make it through in rounds one and two could be paired up against The Power in round three, or Taylor could find himself in a Premier League final re-match with Wade, or another mouth-watering encounter with Australian challenger, and runner up to Taylor in the World Championship final in January, Simon Whitlock.
106 players enter the tournament through the preliminary, first and second rounds, inclding such players as former finalist Gary Mawson, 2004 champion Roland Scholten, and PDC legend Peter Manley, as well as others who could not make it into the top 32 of the UK Open order of merit, including Wayne Mardle, Kirk Shepherd and Robert Thornton, to name a few. With the random draw, the tournament is almost impossible to predict, but this is the main excitement of the tournament. No-one knows which players will face each other and which stages, and the excitement for qualifiers such as tractor driver Ashley Whisker- who opens the tournament against Mawson- is massive.
When the first three rounds are out of the way and big names enter, the tournament really heats up. With such a short format the top players can easily fall victim to players who would never dream of beating them. The U. K. Open is the only tournament where a player like Gary Mawson is ever likely to reach a major final, and it is the tournament where lesser players have the greatest chance of making their names. However, players such as Mawson and Colin Osbourne, who was last year's finalist, have not gone on to capitalise on their success with further good performances, instead remaining where they are or dropping in the rankings.
This tournament seems like Taylor's as usual. He can be found at odds of 8/15, with nearest rival Whitlock at 12/1. Taylor can be found at 1/2 against field (13/8), and to make the final his odds are 4/13. The bookie clearly see a Taylor win as almost certain, as do most of the fans. But there are players in the draw who can challenge him. Whitlock is a short-format specialist, and Wade has the game to beat Taylor, as does Gary Anderson. Paul Nicholson has defeated Taylor this year, in the Players' Championship, and Mark Walsh is a dangerous player who could be helped by this format. Any concrete predictions could be put out of the window by the draw, but a Taylor victory is one prediction that this writer is happy to make.
Taylor looks certain to win, but the bigger question is who he will face in the final. There is a reason that Simon Whitlock is generally seen as the second favorite for the tournament, and he should at least make the quarter-finals, if the draw works out for him. Wade too is on good form, and could be Taylor's biggest challenge. Anderson will need to be in form, but again he should do well, and players like Adrian Lewis, Mervyn King and Ronnie Baxter all have the short-term game to keep up a challenge over the tournament, which lasts for just one weekend. The likes of Terry Jenkins, who play consistent darts should do well, as a player like Jenkins is rarely upset by lesser players, and a couple of sleepers to make the quarter-finals could be Steve Beaton, John Part or Wes Newton.
Here are my picks:
Winner: Phil Taylor
Final: James Wade
Semi-Final: Terry Jenkins, Mervyn King
Quarter-Final: Adrian Lewis, Steve Beaton, Wes Newton, Gary Anderson
Last Sixteen: Ronnie Baxter, John Part, Simon Whitlock, Dennis Smith, Vincent van der Voort, Colin Lloyd, Mark Dudbridge, Denis Ovens
Early Exits: Wayne Mardle, Colin Osborne, Mark Walsh, Mark Webster, Paul Nicholson, Kevin Painter.
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