This is a repeat of the very first event in Sydney when Taylor was comprehensive in his 10-3 win. However in their last nine matches there was only been one win and one draw for Taylor. In fact Taylor has only beaten Van Gerwen twice this year. Overall Taylor has won 28, drawn 2 but MVG is closing in with 23 wins over Taylor.
Preview of Night 3
Match 1
Phil Taylor v Dave Chisnall
These two have met each other on 29 ocassions with Taylor leading 21-8 head to head. They have only met the once this year, with Taylor taking the win in the Premier League 7-5. Taylor has won three of their last four matches. Chisnall's only loss in the Sydney Darts Masters has been at the hands of Phil Taylor after he lost in the quarter finals of the 2014 version by 8 legs to 2. In Australia the two have also met in Perth, where Taylor was also victorious.
Match 2
Michael Van Gerwen v Peter Wright
This head to head is all about one man, MVG. This year they have met six times and he has won on all occassions. There last clash was in the final of the European Open where he won 6-5. In fact in the last two years Wright has only won once (semi finals of the 2015 Japan Darts Masters) and drawn once and they have played 16 times on the big stage. Overall the record is Wright 8 wins, 1 draw and Van Gerwen 36 wins. Peter Wright went deeper into this tournament than MVG last year, with MVG losing to his compatriot RVB in the quarters and Wright making the semis. The previous year Wright was knocked out in the quarters but still did better than MVG who was upset by Warren Parry on the first night. In the original event MVG made the final, losing to Phil Taylor 10-3.
Preview of Night 2
Match 1 Adrian Lewis v Dave Chisnall
It may well surprise people to know Chizzy holds the upper hand in the head to head record, albeit only just. He was won 12, drawn 1 and lsot 10 against Lewis on the big stage. In the corresponding fixtures in Shanghai and Dubai Chisnall won 8-6 and 10-1 respectively and they exactly split their record in the Premier League this year, both matches finishing 7-4, first to Chisnall then to Lewis. They have not matched up before in Sydney and if last nights averages are anything to go by (Chisnall 93.19 and Lewis 93.13) then this will be a nail biter to start the night.
Match 2 Rhys Mathewson v Peter Wright
Mathewson throwing first means if he handles the pressure again he has a slight advantage in that Wright must break him to win. However Wright average over 99 last night and Mathewson just over 84. Mathewson has the ability to improve upon this and he now knows what it is like to be under the heat of the lights and on the big stage. Not many people saw his win comign last night but it was well deserved so he can not be written off. Peter Wright is exuding more confidence in his approach though so it is a difficult challenge but won the Muff is surely ready for. Nothing to lose is a dangerous thing for an opponent.
Match 3 Gary Anderson v Phil Taylor
The current world champion v the 16 time champion. What a privilege to have this as a competitive match in Sydney. Anderson faces two impressive records that Taylor holds. The first is he continues to never have been beaten in a television event on Australian shores. The second is of six meeting this year, Taylor has won five, including three in the Premier League. In fact the only time he has lost is their only other meeting in the world series this year, when Anderson won 11-7 in the semi finals. Overall the record on Tv is Anderson 14 wins 2 losses and 37 losses with Anderson winning only 3 of their last 12 meetings. Mind you, after winning in their very first clash Anderson held a worse record after 13 matches having one just the first one and losing 12 from 2007 - 2011. It will be a close competitive match and this year's World Series has really all been about Gary Anderson but Taylor will want to demonstrate he remains the monarch of darts in Australia.
Match 4 Michael Van Gerwen v Kyle Anderson
The second Aussie to qualify through (the first time this has happened in the world series as in 2014 Anderson progressed through alongside Kiwi Warren Parry, who defeated MCG in the opening round. Statistics from the World Series say MVG can start slowly but is hard to stop through the middle of the tournaments. Kyle Anderson will bring some confidence into the match though as he holds 33% wins against MVG (2 wins 4 losses.) He has played him four times this year and only won the once, in the Austrian Darts Masters. However, with the confidence of playing at home, and a comprehensive record in Sydney, having only once in three events now not made at least the quarter finals (including a 2014 semi final appearance) Anderson will be keen on taking out MVG. MVG seems very committed to winning this tournament though, with a serious demeanour and extra practice so it will be a great way to finish the night and set up the final night on Saturday.
This year the Star in Sydney is the location for the Sydney Darts Masters. This venue will help create a huge sound that is sure to increase the amazing atmosphere of an international darts event. As always if you missed out on tickets the whole event is live on Fox Sports.
Of the ranked players Michael Van Gerwen and Raymond Van Barneveld, the two Dutchmen, and Phil Taylor, undefeated in Sydney throughout his career on stage, are the only ones who have played in all three Sydney events. James Wade, Peter Wright, and Adrian Lewis have played in two whilst Gary Anderson returns after debuting in this tournament last year, and Dave Chisnall returns after a year off. Looking at the seeded players this looks to be the best group of eight that have ever played at Sydney as a collective.
Of the Aussies David Platt and Simon Whitlock have played in all three events, with Kyle Anderson making the first two but missing last year. Warren Parry has not qualified this year which will be the first Sydney event he has missed out on. Cody Harris returns after last year's debut and Rob Szabo debuts, although his feats at the world championships last year, along with Harris, mean that neither should be intimidated by the big stage in Sydney.
This leaves three other debutants for this year's event in youngsters Corey Cadby, Harley Kemp, and Rhys Matthewson. All mainstays on the local DPA stage and at other events throughout the country, this is the time for this youngsters to shine.
Overall in the three events Phil Taylor dominates the statistics, the main one being champion three times. He has defeated MVG, Stephen Bunting, and Adrian Lewis in the three Sydney Darts Masters finals at Luna Park, Hordern Pavillion, and the Entertainment Centre. Taylor holds the biggest average across all his visits to the occy in Sydney at 103.53. Dave Chisnall and Gary Anderson, both back this year, are the only other two players to hold an average over 100 when averaging out all their matches in Sydney. Hhigh quality darts is almost guaranteed with 1 in 3 matches in Sydney seeing at least one player, if not both, average over 100 (15 of the 45 matches played in Sydney.) The only Australasian player to average over 100 in a match was Simon Whitlock (against fellow Aussie Jamie Mathers in the first round of 2013.) Taylor holds the highest winning average in a match in Sydney when he recorded 110.36 verses Dave Chisnall in the quarter finals of 2014. Gary Anderson holds the highest losing average when he got 105.31 and still losing to Adrian Lewis in the 2015 quarter finals, Chisnall holds the next best at 101.59 whilst losing to Taylor in their 2014 clash.
Phil Taylor actually holds the top five averages in matches held in Sydney. To demonstrate his dominance in Sydney his for and against leg difference is plus 69. The next closest for and against leg differential is MVG's plus 10! Even if you average this difference out with matches played Taylor rounds to an average of a 6 leg gap in his matches. The next closest is Gary Anderson with an average of 3 legs gap. The question is can Taylor retain this dominance overall.
Generally in the first round if we look at averages it is Dave Chisnall who leads the way, having never conceded a leg in his only first round match and averaging an impressive 103.66. If you are looking for an upset, there have only been three in the first round where the seeded player has been toppled. This occurred once in the first event, at Luna Park (Clinton Bridge 6-5 over RVB) and twice in the second event at the Horden Pavilion (Kyle Anderson 6-5 over RVB and Warren Parry 6-5 over MVG). On all occassions it was Dutchmen who fell and the scoreline was 6-5. Last year all eight seeded players progressed, as has been the case in all world series events this year, so odds are reducing that an upset is closer to occurring.
For Peter Wright this year it will be a unique first round as the two times he has played Round One he has played Loz Ryder, who has not qualified this year.
In terms of statistics the average score in terms of legs in Round One in the history of the competition is 6-2 with the winner averaging 94.72 and the loser averaging 83.79. The highest individual average in Round One is MVG's 106.09 and the lowest average was Warren Parry's 69.9 in the first year (despite only losing to Paul Nicholson 6-4 on legs!) The average for non seeded players overall in Round One is 83.49 whilst the seeded players overall have averaged 95.02.
In terms of the seeded players and the results in the World Series so far, there have been wins for Gary Anderson (Dubai, Tokyo and Auckland) and one for Michael Van Gerwen (Shanghai). The losing finalists were Michael Van Gerwen (Dubai and Tokyo), Adrian Lewis (Auckland) and James Wade (Shanghai). Anderson averages 101.2925 across the tournaments (Van Gerwen just behind on 101.2892), but leading the pack in that regard is Phil Taylor with a phenomenal 101.4. In terms of legs, Anderson's average sits at almost 9 and conceding he sits at 5 on average with Van Gerwen 8-6 and Taylor 7-4 in those regards. Anderson's for and against leg differential is 44 across 13 matches, with MVG second on 26 in the same amount of matches and Taylor the only other one in double digits with 16 difference in 9 matches.
In round one this year (excluding Dubai which does not have a round of 16) and the stats look like the below
WDM Round 1 2016 Legs conceded (total) Average score for Average score against
Adrian Lewis. 1 89.36 74.09
Dave Chisnall 7 90.47 76.17
Gary Anderson 3 98.88 75.64
James Wade 3 85.98 74.4
MVG 10 96.7 84.7
Peter Wright 2 92.97 79.2
Phil Taylor 3 103.73 78.04
RVB 5 90.52 82.19
The above seems to indicate that Phil Taylor is a man to avoid first up in the draw (no surprise there), but the shock comes when you see MVG's figures which seem to indicate if you want to knock him out do so early, as Warren Parry knew in 2014. He has conceded 10 legs in the opening rounds this year although looking at the average losing score it seems that the players who play him have been most on their game, so perhaps that explains it best. Dave Chisnall also looks the best bet to be upset in the opening round on the figures above but there have been a lot of darts thrown since the last world series of darts event in Shanghai.
Preview of Sydney Darts Masters first round matches head to head 1. James Wade v Rhys Mathewson Muff has a big job starting the tournament against the machine. With a semi final appearance in 2014, and a quarter final in 2015, Mathewson hopes this trend for Wade continues this year and he can bundle him out in the opening round. 2. Dave Chisnall v Harley Kemp Realistically with such PDC talent on show all the Aussies would love to have been drawn against Chizzy and Harley Kemp got the plum draw. Chizzy looks pretty calm at present though and in 2014 players would have been thinking the same and Chisnall came out and defeated Damon Heta 6-0 in the opening round. 3. Adrian Lewis v Rob Szabo Lewis has not taken on Szabo before on the big stage but the lights etc are not something Rob Szabo is not unused to having been at the Ally Pally over last Christmas. Szabo took on Phil Taylor in Auckland so he is used to taken on the biggest players in the world. Lewis has never lost in the first round of this tournament and has won 5 of his seven matches in Sydney, so his record is strong but the Kiwi is up for a fight and will look to fellow countryman Warren Parry’s example from 2014 when he upset MCG in the first round at Sydney. 4. Phil Taylor v Corey Cadby Many Australian dart fans will be hoping this is the champion v champion elect match. Having just signed for Mac Elkin, Cadby will be looking to use this experience to prepare himself for what he faces in the upcoming months. He has the confidence and the game but Phil Taylor is undefeated in tournaments in Australia and will be wanting this to continue. 5. Gary Anderson v David Platt Current world champion takes on reigning DPA Australia champion David Platt. It is only the second time they have played each other. Seven years ago it was Anderson who came out 6-3 on top on the PDC Pro Tour in the PDPA Players Championship East Midlands. On the Sydney stage Anderson has played two with a 50% record, with a leg difference of +5. Platty has played in all of these tournaments and has lost in the first round on all occasions (leg difference -12), something he will look to change this time around. 6. Peter Wright v Simon Whitlock A lot of people will be predicting this is where the upset could come. Of the 13 times they have faced each other Whitlock has won only five but has won two of the last three. Their last TV clash was in Gibraltar this year when Wright came away victorious 6-2. Whitlock will want to return to the days of 2014 when he made the semi-final, whilst Wright made the semis last year, coming so close to being a winner in Sydney. 7. Michael Van Gerwen v Cody Harris Hollands number one v New Zealand’s number one. Harris has taken on dutch power before, meeting RVB in the Auckland Masters and now he meets MVG, which the stats say is less of a problem than you might otherwise think. Nothing threatens Cody he just smiles and gets along with life. Cody just needs to remember what fellow Kiwi Warren Parry did to his dutch opponent in the the Sydney Darts Masters of 2014. 8. Raymond Van Barneveld v Kyle Anderson These two have met five times on the big stage and Kyle has won three. Barney had his best SDM run last year and is looking to continue this run, but in the world cup of darts he lost to Anderson 3-4 so it is not impossible the last game of darts on this night will bring the biggest upset of all.
The Australian and New Zealand Representatives Sydney Darts Masters 2016