James Wade can be backed at 33/1 to win a maiden PDC World Championship as he starts his campaign against Ronny Huybrechts at Alexandra Palace on Wednesday night.
‘The Machine’, who has eight major titles under his belt, has yet to go all the way in 12 appearances in this tournament, falling at the semi-final stage three times. But Wade is 7/50 to begin his quest for a first major title by condemning Huybrechts, who is rated 79/20 to prevail, to a second first-round exit in four years.
Wade is 7/5 to whitewash Huybrechts, 2/1 to drop only one set and 9/2 to edge out the Belgian in a five-set thriller. Huybrechts, having lost to Peter Wright in the last two years, is 25/1 to whitewash the number-six seed, 11/1 to triumph 3-2 and 39/20 to win the first set.
Although he has enough about him to win a set, it should be a relatively comfortable win for Wade and a 3-1 win looks the pick of the bets.
Mensur Suljovic is 17/10 to breeze through his clash against 3/1 underdog Ron Meulenkamp 3-0. Although the Serb has yet to advance past the third round in the World Championship, he has enjoyed a fine year on the circuit and reached his first major final in October before losing to Michael van Gerwen in the European Championship.
Suljovic, 1/5 to win the match, can be backed at 21/10 to triumph 3-1 and 4/1 to edge past Meulenkamp in five sets but we’re tipping a whitewash.
In the final match of the night, Robert Thornton is priced at 3/20 to emerge victorious over either Zoran Lerchbacher or Simon Stevenson, with the Englishman 3/10 to get through in the battle of the qualifiers.
