Michael van Gerwen shakes hands with Joe Cullen (Photo credit: Steven Paston/PDC)
The Second Round action reaches its climax at the 2024 Betfred World Matchplay on Wednesday, with two former champions among those vying for quarter-final spots.
Defending champion Nathan Aspinall and 2022 runner-up Gerwyn Price became the latest big names to bow out at the Winter Gardens last night, now focus shifts to the bottom half of the draw bracket.
Michael van Gerwen resumes his quest for a fourth Betfred World Matchplay title with a showdown against former Masters champion Joe Cullen.
Van Gerwen is making his 16th appearance in this prestigious competition, having made his debut as a teenager back in 2007.
Winner here in 2015, 2016 and 2022, Mighty Mike is second only to Phil Taylor in terms of titles in Blackpool, and got off to a flying start by defeating Premier League champion Luke Littler 10-6 with a 102 average on Monday.
Van Gerwen, whose most recent major ranking title came at the 2022 Players Championship Finals, now meets Cullen in a repeat of their encounter at the same stage of the Matchplay two years ago – which the Dutchman won 11-5 en route to taking the title.
Cullen, semi-finalist here 12 months ago, has endured a below-par season so far by his standards but returned to top form by thrashing Brendan Dolan 10-4 in Round One with a 100 average.
Cullen is bidding to end a six-match losing run against Van Gerwen, which includes the 2022 Premier League final – in which he missed a match dart.
Elsewhere, 2023 World Champion Michael Smith takes on former Masters champion Chris Dobey in another tasty tie.
Smith was runner-up to Rob Cross in the 2019 World Matchplay and returned to Blackpool on the back of claiming the World Cup of Darts title for the first time alongside Luke Humphries last month.
Bully Boy opened up with a superb 10-5 win over 2018 champion Gary Anderson and will be out to avenge his hurtful four-set whitewash at the hands of Dobey in last December’s World Championship.
Dobey, who has claimed a ProTour title this year, dug deep to deny debutant Ritchie Edhouse 10-7 in his opener and is vying to reach the quarter-finals here for the second successive year.
Rob Cross, the 2019 champion, looks to continue his terrific spell of form when he faces multiple ranking event winner Ryan Searle.
Cross has claimed the US Darts Masters title, as well as European Tour silverware this season and has provisionally climbed back into the world’s top four.
The 2018 World Champion came through an epic First Round tie against Dutch debutant Gian van Veen, surviving a staggering six match darts on his way to a 13-12 victory with a 100.4 average.
Searle has secured a Players Championship title in 2024 and is out to follow up his 10-4 rout of Damon Heta to make it back-to-back quarter-finals in Blackpool.
The opening match of the night sees 2021 semi-finalist Krzysztof Ratajski face former UK Open champion Andrew Gilding.
Ratajski is making his sixth consecutive World Matchplay appearance and was the most dominant winner of the opening round, demolishing Dave Chisnall 10-2.
Gilding, meanwhile, registered only his second win on the Winter Gardens stage at the expense of former champion Peter Wright as he prevailed 10-5.
The action gets under way from 7pm BST, with Second Round matches to be contested over the best of 21 legs.
Matches will be extended if necessary for a maximum of six extra legs before a sudden death leg is required. For example, in a first to 11 Second Round match, if the score reaches 13-13 then the 26th leg will be sudden death.
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