Jermaine Wattimena (#31 FRH, 92.37 (#19), 552-471 (53.96%, #32))
Stefan Bellmont (#98 FRH, 85.88 (#80), 186-230 (44.71%, #89))
It's been an extremely good year for James - playing arguably the best stuff he's done for maybe a decade, probably around the time when he was making world semi finals and winning major tournaments on a regular basis. With how the game's moved on, you could make the argument this is the best Wade we've seen ever, not sure I'd quite go that far, but it's been pretty solid, at least in terms of pure numbers. In terms of results, maybe he'd have liked to do a bit more, he did reach the semi final of the World Matchplay as well as the quarters at Leicester, but aside from that it has been a bit of a dry year, especially on the floor events, where he only made the final day on the European Tour once, and in the Pro Tour he had just the one semi final. I think a lot of that is variance, he has typically only been eliminated by players who are also playing real good stuff, like on TV where he's been knocked out by Littler, Humphries, de Decker (losing every set 3-2 in the tournament Mike binked), Menzies in a deciding leg, Wattimena (hello) in a deciding leg, probably the only one he would want back is Minehead just recently where he went out early to Stephen Burton. That he is the number 16 seed does limit his upside here, and the opening game draw hasn't been particularly kind, but trending in the right direction looks like it could continue.
Another player who's been playing extremely well is Jermaine - we first saw sights of this towards the back end of last year, and he's another one who's playing as well as he has done, at least for 4-5 years looking back to when he was in the top 32 and pushing towards the top 16, and again, maybe ever. The highlight was clearly his run to the final of the European Championship - as mentioned he has maybe the critical win over Wade, but did also defeat Luke Humphries, but seemingly ran out of steam after a deciding leg semi against Danny Noppert and couldn't show his best in the final against Ritchie Edhouse. TV runs weren't isolated to that event, a quarters at the Grand Slam (losing to Littler) probably maximised his earnings and he did also pick up a couple of wins at the PC Finals, including one over Josh Rock before running into an inspired Dirk van Duijvenbode. He made three European Tour quarter finals, but the Pro Tour was a bit of a disappointment, he's still yet to win a title in the PDC and had far too many tournaments where he would reach the board final and then lose out. I think if he continues to play as he is, that duck gets broken in 2025, and there is the scope to make a bit of a run this year, and whose to say he can't repeat the TV win he has over Luke on the biggest stage of them all?
This is a nice breakthrough for Stefan, who makes the first appearance of a Swiss player at the PDC worlds, and his first worlds appearance of any description. He has made it here through the very strong west of Europe qualifier, beating WDF worlds favourite Jimmy van Schie in the final, and also eliminating card holders Berry van Peer and Jurjen van der Velde, as well as Moreno Blom who is playing in the WDF worlds as I speak. It has also been an excellent year in terms of gaining experience - rule changes mean he's been limited in terms of European Tour possibilities (and he'll be kicking himself at missing the first Swiss event), but an early Challenge Tour win set him up extremely nicely for getting into the main tour. Here he played over 20 events - there were quite a lot of first round exits, so maybe getting onto the tour might be a step too far right now (or would have been in 2024 at least), but he did have some flashes with a couple of quarter final wins, and he has picked up victories over Menzies, Cross and Michael Smith, so names won't necessarily put him in an uncomfortable spot. An overall finish of twelfth on the Challenge Tour is solid, and should see him creep into the UK Open assuming they still admit eight Challenge Tour players, and it will be good if he can continue with what's been a solid year of development.
This is a real tough draw for Stefan. Wattimena is probably in the top quarter of players from the Pro Tour list you don't want to face, and I can't realistically see him winning even one time in five, I think he may only be as high as having 15% chances. Bellmont isn't bad for sure, this is just a stinker of a draw. If we do get the match up of JW's, I think it is probably too close to call. Year long, maybe Wade shades it in the stats 55/45 or there abouts, but with Jermaine coming into form, I think this is going to be a pure coin flip. Too close to call. Will Jermaine having the TV win this year make the difference?
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