Gary Anderson holds the head to head record with 20 wins. There have been 2 draws and 16 times van Barneveld has won. Their last clash was in the quarter final at Las Vegas which Anderson won. He lost at the same stage at the Shanghai Masters this year though. In fact this year it has been 3 wins to Anderson and one to Barney. Barney has been in one final of World Series events downunder (being the only man to have participated in all of them globally) whereas Anderson has actually won a final in the World Series downunder (Both of these finals occurred in Auckland.) Semi Final 1
James Wade v Gary Anderson
James Wade has won this clash 16 times in 49 fixtures, with 4 draws and 29 wins to Gary Anderson. This 50th clash between the two will be their fourth this year but first in the 2017 version of the World Series. This will be a tie breaker as this year there has been one win for each player and one draw (Anderson having a win and a draw against Wade in this year’s Premier League.) The players have never taken each other on in Perth. Wade has made two semi-finals in the WA capital before, winning his way through to the final in 2015. He defeated Michael van Gerwen in that semi but will be pleased the Dutchman is not here this year as the other two times he has played in this competition Wade’s progress has been halted by MVG. Gary Anderson has only made the semi-finals once in Perth, two years ago, when he lost out to Phil Taylor.
Semi Final 2
Raymond van Barneveld v Daryl Gurney
This is a much newer rivalry than the other semi-final with Barney and Gurney only taking on each other three times on the big stage. All three (2014, 2016 and 2017) were in the players championship so this is the TV debut of this clash. In April RvB defeated Gurney in their only clash of this year, 6-4. It moved him ahead in the head to head statistics with two wins compared to the solitary win of Gurney in 2016. Van Barneveld made it through to the semi-finals of Perth last year but lost to Dave Chisnall and will be looking to make amends this years version. Gurney is coming off a semi-final loss in Melbourne a week ago. He won his only other semi-final of the World Series of Darts 2017 competition, in Las Vegas against Gary Anderson.
Night 2
Quarter Final 1
Michael Smith v James Wade
These two have played each other ten times and the head to head record is 7-3 to Wade. In fact until Smith defeated Wade 6-3 in a UK Open qualifier in February Wade was on a run of six straight wins from 2014. Of the three Perth events James Wade won all of his quarter finals until last year when he lost 10-8 to eventual winner Michael van Gerwen. Of his three quarter final appearances in the World Series this year, Wade has won two and lost one (his last appearance at this stage, against Simon Whitlock in Melbourne a week ago.) Michael Smith has lost both his quarter finals in the World Series, and on each occasion it was to the eventual runners up in the event (Corey Cadby in Auckland and Peter Wright in Melbourne.)
Quarter Final 2
Gary Anderson v Simon Whitlock
These two have played each other 35 times over the years but this year their two clashes have gone the way of Simon Whitlock. Before that it was back in 2014 that Whitlock last defeated Anderson. Overall the head to head reads 19 wins to Anderson and 16 to Whitlock so the Aussie will be aiming to close that gap even more after tonight. Whitlock has only made this stage once in Perth, where he lost 8-6 to Dave Chisnall. Anderson has one win and one loss in Perth at this stage. In the World Series this year the Scotsman’s record at the quarter final stage is won two lost two. Whitlock has only played in two quarter finals this year and has won one and lost one.
Quarter Final 3
Phil Taylor v Raymond van Barneveld
This preview hardly needs writing as the history between these two is so well recorded. Suffice to say the record now stands at 81 played 60 Taylor wins, 4 draws and 17 van Barneveld victories. They played each other at this stage a fortnight ago in Auckland as Taylor won 10-9. Barney has made this round in Perth each year but last year was his breakthrough win at this stage, defeating Adrian Lewis 10-8. For Taylor, he was undefeated in Perth for the first two years until Corey Cadby took him out in the opening round last year, Taylor’s undefeated record in the quarter finals of the Perth Darts Masters therefore remains intact.
Quarter Final 4
Peter Wright v Daryl Gurney
These two last went head to head a week ago at the semi final stage of the World Series of Darts event in Melbourne. In the end Gurney would have been disappointed with the performance as he lost 11-4. He also lost in the World Matchplay semi-final this year when Peter Wright had to use all his experience to defeat the Northern Irishman 17-15. Previously they have met in the quarter final stage of the World Series only once, at the US Darts Masters in Las Vegas this year, when Gurney defeated Wright in the last leg (the score-line ending 8-7.) In fact of the seven times the two have already faced off against each other this year, that is Gurney’s only win. Overall they have faced each other 13 times with Gurney only picking up three victories. In Perth Peter Wright has won one ( v Corey Cadby last year) and lost two quarter finals. Gurney has only lost once in the quarter final stage of any World Series event (to James Wade in Auckland this year.)
Perth Darts Masters 2017
Night 1
Match 1
Michael Smith v Adam Rowe
Adam Rowe has played the last two years of the Perth Darts Masters and he has lost to James Wade and Peter Wright. He did improve across the two years, losing 6-1 to Wade and then 6-4 to Wright. He will be looking to improve even further this year. Michael Smith has won the opening matches in both his World Series appearances, but Rowe may look to the fact that he won 6-0 in Auckland and 6-3 in Melbourne, so the trend may be in Rowe’s favour.
Match 2
Peter Wright v Rhys Mathewson
Mathewson would have been disappointed on his second performance on stage at the World Series. His record is now one win (against James Wade) and two losses (both to Peter Wright including 6-2 a week ago.) He will be happy to be challenged by Wright once more as he knows he can perform better than Melbourne. Wright is coming off a final performance in Melbourne and he has never lost in the first round of any of the Perth Darts Masters events although it has been trending the wrong way as he won 6-1 three years ago, then 6-2 two years ago and 6-4 last year.
Match 3
Daryl Gurney v Koha Kokiri
Daryl Gurney is undefeated in the first round of the three world series events he has participated in. Each of the performances has been comprehensive in this round as well, winning 6-2 twice, and 6-0 in Melbourne just a week ago. For Kokiri he will want to perform better than his effort in Perth last year when he lost 6-1 to Dave Chisnall. He will instead look to build confidence from his performance against James Wade in Melbourne last week. He may have lost 6-3 but it was a tight affair and he caused moments of concern for Wade.
Match 4
James Wade v Darren Hayes
For Hayes, from rural WA, this is his debut and he will want to be the second debutant local player to upset a PDC professional, the first being Corey Cadby last year. James Wade has won all three of his round one matches in Perth. Two of those matches were against locals in Beau Anderson and Adam Rowe (the other was Kiwi Rob Szabo.) Wade has lost twice in the first round of two World Series events this year but he has won in Auckland and Melbourne in the last fortnight.
Match 5
Simon Whitlock v Justin Thompson
This face off is between two players that have established darts to what it is today. Thompson would have been disappointed with his first outing in Melbourne but his success in Townsville and throughout the events in the DPA this year demonstrate his good form. Whitlock will have been disappointed not to make better of his semi-final appearance in Melbourne last week but will have been happy with making it that far. He also made the quarter finals in Auckland before losing to Kyle Anderson. Whitlock will be happy to not be playing Raymond van Barneveld because he has lost in the first round for the last two Perth Darts Masters. The last time Whitlock has won in the first round of Perth was 2014.
Match 6
Phil Taylor v Kyle Anderson
They have not played each other this year but the record between the two is clear. Taylor will look to his five and zero record with confidence. They have played each other three times in the World Series, and one of those has been in Perth. Since then Taylor has defeated Anderson in the Players Championship at Coventry in 2015 and in the Austrian Darts Masters in 2016, their last meeting. This is a grand final in a sense as the winner of the Auckland Darts Masters takes on the winner of the Melbourne Darts Masters. Anderson has only one once in the World Series in his home state and that success was wiped away in the quarter finals by Taylor so Anderson will be looking to even the ledger in Perth in this match. Whoever wins this could well become the favourite of this event as a whole.
Match 7
Gary Anderson v Rob Szabo
Gary Anderson will be looking to continue his record of never losing in Perth in the first round. He has also only lost once in the opening round of the World Series this year, that loss was to WA’s own Kyle Anderson in Auckland. He won in Dubai this year and made the semi-finals in Las Vegas. Szabo has not won a World Series event. He has stepped up to the mark five times and he has won eight legs over that time. He will have been disappointed to lose in his home country of New Zealand against a rampant Michael Smith. He did a much better job in the first round of last year’s Perth Darts Masters against James Wade and will want to improve on that this time around.
Match 8
Raymond van Barneveld v Corey Cadby
Barney has had much success in Perth. He has never lost in the first round and have beaten Australia’s great hopes before in terms of Simon Whitlock (twice) and Loz Ryder. He had also not lost in the first round of a World Series event since Dubai until Melbourne. Cadby was the conqueror of van Barneveld in Melbourne but in a sense this is a new challenge. Whilst he has defeated the likes of Smith, Taylor, Wright and van Barneveld himself but he has not defeated a PDC player back to back. This is his opportunity to fix that statistic a year after he really made his name internationally by defeating Phil Taylor in the first round of the 2016 Perth Darts Masters.