The Masters 2022 Preview
The World Championship ended 25 days ago but the players will receive no rest. The top 24 players will return to Milton Keynes to compete in the first televised event of the PDC darting calendar with the Masters kicking off on Friday 28th January. This will be the first event that Peter Wright will play on our screens after defeating Michael Smith on the 3rd of January to win his second world title.
Jonny Clayton won this tournament 12 months ago after defeating Mervyn King 11-8 and in doing so guaranteed his spot in the Premier League which he went on to win later. This year, the Ferret will take on the winner of Dimitri Van Den Bergh and Ian White. As Clayton is ranked number 8 in the world he gets an automatic spot in the second round, but the Welshman will have his work cut out with Dimitri Van Den Bergh looking for an instant comeback after a very underwhelming world championship campaign. The Belgian lost 3-1 in his second-round match against Florian Hempel which resulted in him going from fifth to ninth in the world rankings.
World number 1 Gerwyn Price will also be in action and will also be looking to return to winning ways as he prepares to try and win his first Masters title as he takes on the winner of Ryan Searle and Mervyn King. Price will be again expecting a hostile welcome from the crowd and might expect more tension because of the comments made on social media labelling the crowd cheats and asking for the World Championship to be held somewhere other than the Alexandra Palace. Peter Wright knows that a win here could see him move to world number one in the world with the current world champion only £15,000 off the number one price in ranking money earnt. The winner of this tournament will win £60,000 and Wright will see this as an opportunity to become the world number one for the first time in his career just before the premier league kicks off on February 3rd. Snakebite takes on the winner of an all-Dutch affair between Dirk van Duijvenbode and Danny Noppert.
Michael Van Gerwen will be looking to come back strong after an unfortunate positive covid test which ruled him out of the world championship as he takes on the winner of a hard to call encounter between Nathan Aspinall and world championship quarter finalist Luke Humphries. Michael Smith will be looking to put the disappointment of losing the world final out of his mind as he looks to win his first television title and will play the winner of Krzysztof Ratajski and Gabriel Clemens. The tournament will last three days and will be held in the Marshall Arena in Milton Keynes which also hosted the Premier League Darts during the covid 19 pandemic where the action was held behind closed doors. The Premier League line-up is still yet to be announced so this tournament could prove decisive in deciding who gets their spot in the now confirmed 8 player line-up.