Ryan Joyce (#29 FRH, 91.76 (#27), 488-439 (52.64%, #38))
Darius Labanauskas (#116 FRH, 86.42 (#77), 140-129 (52.04%, #47))
If you asked however many darts fans you liked to list the ten best players in the world, how many do you think would include Danny Noppert in their lists? I don't think it would be that many, but I think there's a legitimate case to be there. In the top 10 in FRH, in the top 10 in scoring this year, 11th in the tour card race rankings, a major winner and Lakeside finalist, he remains one of the most underrated players on the circuit. Noppert's had a moderately quiet year in terms of results, while he now has back to back European Championship semi finals, he was edged out by Martin Lukeman at the UK Open, had a pair of first round exits at the Matchplay and Grand Prix to James Wade and Gerwyn Price, would suffer a surprise last sixteen defeat at the Slam to Mickey Mansell, then reach the same stage at Minehead before running into Luke Littler. That's a bad draw, but some of those he might want back. He's still searching for a first European Tour title, and did better in the first half of the year, with a run of five quarter finals in six events, but could only turn one of those into a semi final and is now without a final session appearance in six events. A highlight in terms of results was probably his Pro Tour win, where he beat Luke Humphries in a tight final, and would augment that run with three semi finals and six quarter finals, showing great consistency in his game. It's not the greatest section of the draw, he has arguably one of the tougher set of first three games with a possible Joyce - Searle - Littler run, so any further moves up the ranking would require peak play, but Noppert is one who is at the level where it's not out of the question.
Ryan's had an extremely solid season as he looks to crack into the top 32, so would maybe have liked a bit of an easier draw. He made the quarter finals here on debut and this will be a seventh straight appearance here, but he's not made the last 32 since that quarter final. Floor form has been good enough - he did make an early final, losing just by the odd break to Michael Smith, and has a further seven board wins, three of which went further, including one semi final. That'd be enough to see him seeded in the top half of players for the Players Championship Finals, where he made the quarter finals for back to back deep runs, defeating a tricky line up of Karel Sedlacek, Cameron Menzies and Martin Schindler, before losing out to Luke Humphries. However, that wasn't his best televised run, as he made the semi finals of the Grand Prix, eliminating Josh Rock, Nathan Aspinall and Rob Cross before Humphries again would be too good. Other TV results weren't too kind, he got out of a very tough Grand Slam group by knocking out Michael van Gerwen, but would be hugely outplayed by Gian van Veen in the knockouts, but the UK Open and Matchplay were both first game losses to Tim Wolters and Stephen Bunting, taking that second game to overtime not being the worst result. Joyce didn't do a great deal on the Euro Tour, withdrawing from a lot of events and not making great inroads in the ones he did play, getting wins over seeds in Chisnall and Pietreczko, then beating Alan Soutar in one where he was seeded himself, but not making a quarter final at all all year. He has more than one Pro Tour win to his name, and may well crack the top 32 with a bit of a run here.
Joyce will face Darius Labanauskas, the Lithuanian also being a former quarter finalist, returning after a year off where he had an awful run of form and play and lost his tour card. He's been rebuilding off the main circuit, and returns here through the SDC ranking table. Darius finished second in that, a bit behind card holder Jeffrey de Graaf, but far enough ahead of Johan Engstrom to book an Ally Pally return. On that SDC tour, Labanauskas did most of his best work towards the end of the tour, winning two of the final four events and getting to a further final in that spell, and actually finished top of the averages on the tour, fractionally ahead of de Graaf. Within that series of events Labanauskas did qualify for one Euro Tour event in Austria, where ironically he would draw and beat Madars Razma, before playing well but finishing second best to Joe Cullen in round two. Darius has also been playing the Challenge Tour, and generally doing alright - ending up in the top 25 on the averages and just inside the top 16 on the overall ranking table, not being able to reach a final but pushing up the charts late with a semi and a quarter in the final weekend, to add to a semi and two quarter finals earlier in the season. He's also played some WDF events, winning in Latvia and Lithuania, maybe playing more of the circuit could have put him in the Lakeside equation were he not to make it here.
I think this first round game is moderately straight forward, while it's not been a bad year for Darius, I don't think he's back to anywhere near his best, and with how well Ryan is playing he barely rates to have a 15% chance, a five point per turn difference is pretty substantial. Danny is, naturally, a stronger opponent, but Joyce has enough game in him that I think he has more than a one in three shot - but not by much.
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