World Grand Prix 2020 Day Four preview and order of play: Underdogs aim to reach Last Eight
The Second Round action concludes at the 2020 Boylesports World Grand Prix on Friday as a clutch of potential dark horses aim to continue their progress.
The quick-fire best of three format laid claim to a host of high-profile casualties in Round One, with six of the eight seeds subjected to shock early exits.
The draw has now opened up for a potential underdog to mount a title challenge at the Ricoh Arena this week, with just one seed left standing in the bottom half of the draw.
Gerwyn Price is the sole remaining seed in this section as he looks to reach the Quarter-Finals of this prestigious event for only the second time.
The world number three, who claimed his third televised title at the World Series Finals last month, will feel he has a golden opportunity to stamp his authority and mount another title challenge here.
The Welshman began with a straight sets win over Jermaine Wattimena on Wednesday but will look to improve on his match average of 84 when he comes up against lively Belgian Kim Huybrechts.
Both players are renowned for showing their passion on the stage and have served up some fiery encounters in recent years.
Huybrechts has won five of their eight previous meetings, though this will be their first in front of the TV cameras since the 2017 World Cup of Darts.
The world number 38 was a quarter-finalist at the Grand Prix in 2016 and marked his return to the double-start event with a hard-fought 2-1 victory over 2011 finalist Brendan Dolan.
The opening match of the night sees two-time Boylesports World Grand Prix runner-up Dave Chisnall take on dangerous debutant Ryan Joyce.
Despite being renowned for his scoring power, Chizzy has a fine pedigree in this format and is targeting a second successive final appearance and a third since 2013.
He was one dart away from setting a new record average in this tournament but eventually had to settle for a 102.85 in a blistering straight sets win over Glen Durrant earlier this week.
Chisnall now faces the man who defeated him 8-7 in the final to claim his first PDC ranking title at the Summer Series three months ago.
That success effectively secured Joyce his debut in both this event and the World Matchplay, and he produced a sensational display of double hitting to stun World Champion Peter Wright 2-0 in Round One.
The Newcastle thrower has won his last two encounters with Chizzy and is aiming to reach his first major Quarter-Final since the 2018/19 World Championship.
Close friends become enemies on the stage as stablemates Joe Cullen and Jonny Clayton collide.
World number 18 faces world number 21 in one of the most closely-matched ties of the round as both look to reach their first Grand Prix Quarter-Final.
Cullen came through a nail-biting last-leg shoot-out against 2017 champion Daryl Gurney, while Clayton held his nerve to edge out Ian White 2-1 and register his first win in this competition.
Cullen had previously won all four meeting between the two before Clayton stopped the rot with a commanding 10-4 triumph in the Last 32 of this year’s UK Open.
Two players bidding to enter uncharted territory in this competition go head-to-head as German ace Gabriel Clemens faces Dutch star Jeffrey de Zwaan.
De Zwaan received a late call-up to this event following Stephen Bunting’s positive Covid test and seized his unexpected opportunity by defeating Jamie Hughes 2-1.
He is now aiming to surpass the Last 16 stage at the third time of asking for what would be a third career major Quarter-Final.
Clemens, meanwhile, marked his World Grand Prix debut with an impressive straight sets scalp of Premier League star Nathan Aspinall and now has his sights set on a first PDC major Quarter-Final.
Victory for the 37-year-old would also see him leapfrog Max Hopp in the world rankings to enter the world’s top 32 and become the new German number one.
The action gets underway from 7pm BST, with Second Round matches to be contested over the best of five sets.
All Sets are the best of five legs and there will be no tie-break in any Set. All legs must begin and end with a double, meaning that a player must hit a double before he can begin scoring in each leg.
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BoyleSports World Grand Prix 2020 Schedule of Play
Friday October 9
Second Round
7.15pm Ryan Joyce v Dave Chisnall
8.15pm Gabriel Clemens v Jeffrey de Zwaan
9.15pm Gerwyn Price v Kim Huybrechts
10.15pm Jonny Clayton v Joe Cullen