Madars Razma (#45 FRH, 88.98 (#55), 405-376 (51.86%, #51))
Christian Kist (#69 FRH, 88.28 (#64), 245-255 (52.13%, #45))
It's been a bit of a year of rebuilding for Dirk, but after injury issues which plagued the back end of 2023 and carried on somewhat into 2024, things are starting to look like they're heading back in the right direction. The floor season actually started pretty well - quickly making one quarter final, before reaching a final on the third set of events in Hildesheim, where he was just the odd break away from picking up a title against Dave Chisnall. The remainder of the floor season wasn't fantastic, as he did have nearly a dozen first round exits after that final, but a couple of semi finals have helped things along, and he is at least now in a provisional Matchplay spot, after he missed both that and the Grand Prix this year, as well as failing to qualify for the Grand Slam. The European Tour was a real disappointment, relatively speaking - his 2023 work (with three early Pro Tour wins and a Euro Tour final counting for a fair bit of the year) saw him seeded for many of the early events, and at least getting a free pass into most of the others, but it was almost always a second round exit for Dirk. He got a bit further in Leverkusen (round three) and Antwerp (a season's best of a quarter final), but balanced that out with two first round exits and a failure to qualify in the final three events. As stated, Dirk did miss many TV events, and got Luke Humphries in the first game of the UK Open which never helps, but it was on TV later in the year that showed signs he might be getting back to his best. Dortmund saw him reach a quarter final (having only just made the field as the last man in), beating top seed Martin Schindler and Daryl Gurney before getting solidly beaten by Luke Woodhouse, then he'd go one step further at the PC Finals, not having the hardest draw with Rydz, Hempel, Wattimena and Scutt in his way, but still games that he'd need to work to win, especially against the last couple in current form. Luke Humphries would be too much in the semi final, but Dirk was 7-5 up, just not being able to cope with a change of pace from Luke as it finished 11-8. Definitely the possibility that his ranking is understating his level of play, and that we might be getting back to the level where he gets the next logical step of a Euro Tour in 2025.
Madars remains Latvia's number one, but looks to have fallen off a bit from the peaks that he had in 2021-22, where he was making the tricky TV majors and getting close to a top 32 position. He's dropped a bit, but still finished solidly up the Pro Tour rankings and will make a sixth straight appearance, looking to build on a best of a third round achieved last year (when he was actually seeded, albeit the #32 seed). On the floor, Razma wasn't bad, with a peak of a semi final coming in Germany in one pairing where he also made a quarter final, and given the players that made the finals in those events (Soutar, Gurney, van den Bergh and Campbell), that might have been his best chance of getting a title, or at least adding to a list of finals he made. Two further quarter finals were added, one in September and one to finish the season, leaving him just outside the top 32 on that ranking table. He would add a semi final at European Tour level in Kiel, with three straight last leg deciders against Dobey, Chisnall and Cullen, a bit more of a comfortable win against Ryan Searle, before losing to eventual winner Rob Cross. Razma made four other events, three being first round defeats, but he did make one other final day in Switzerland, having beaten Damon Heta in a tense affair. TV was quiet, Latvia remain in the World Cup but could really do with finding a better second player, they did beat Denmark but both of those lost to France, while in the Minehead double header, Madars went 0-2, losing to Rowby early and Ratajski late. Pretty much just a year of staying where he's at it seems.
One player back on the rise however is Kist, who will be back on the Pro Tour after a bit of time away, finishing third in the Challenge Tour but picking up a qualifying spot here on account of Scutt and Plaisier qualifying by right. Kist took a bit of time to get going on that tour (although showed some signs early in the season in other events with a quarter final run in the Dutch Open, and a so-so showing in a first round UK Open defeat to Patrick Geeraets), but in the third weekend Kist would do the incredibly rare feat of binking two Challenge Tour events in the same day, a sixteen game winning streak. A third was nearly added the next day when he lost to Justin Hood in the semi final, and a third title was finally added in August, giving him more than enough prize money to win his tour card back. Affiliates kind of got fucked over with respect to the European Tour, but Kist did get through the one domestic qualifier he could play, only to lose 6-5 to Marvin van Velzen in the opening round. Having got that double header win, Kist was able to play a good chunk of the Pro Tour, getting into all of the second half and having some decent runs, including a board win where he drew Humphries in round one and a semi final in back to back events, and a quarter final later in the season. He did have half a chance of making Minehead coming into the final weekend, but went 0-2 when he didn't need a huge amount to sneak into the field. Still, he's back here for a second year, and let's hope the injury issues that really hurt him round about twelve months ago (and have plagued his career throughout) are behind him.
This first one seems moderately competitive, the overall numbers are really close and the projections are putting this right down the middle, I'd probably give Madars the slight edge just on account of having played more games against better opposition, but it's too tough to call. Dirk I think should be fine, he should win a bit more than two in three, and if form has picked up as I think it might have done, it may be pushing closer to three in four, so whoever he plays wouldn't be without a chance, but would be a clear underdog.
No comments:
Post a Comment