Cullen/Suljovic - Oh boy, Cullen's lost his mind here. It is almost as if it is news to him that Suljovic does not play at the same pace as Ricky Evans. Jesus. First set was kind of meh from him outside of the 170 but he took it, then he broke to start set two after Mensur just couldn't score. That ought to have been ballgame, but Mensur had some good legs and took advantage of a poor one from Joe to level. Not even dead in the third set, started off great to go up 2-0, but then make a right mess of two legs and with Suljovic playing fine in the other, it's 2-1. Mensur then did just enough to take the match, for what it's worth.
Woodhouse/Hopp - Incredibly straight forward stuff for Luke. Max had chances in leg three to keep the first set alive, couldn't take them, god knows what happened in the last leg of set two, third set saw him get on the board, and he had half a chance - missed darts in leg three, and making a right mess of 71 in leg four. Not fabulous stuff from Luke but it really didn't need to be.
Cross/White - This became a bit of a slugfest. Cross was pretty good in set one, fell apart in set two, set three was a sweep without putting together a great deal of note, then set four was basically back and forth holds until White made a mess of 91 in the deciding leg, letting Rob in for 82 and the match. Nowhere near Rob's best stuff, but Ian really couldn't stay with him on the scoring (doubling was just fine).
Schindler/Barry - Some tight sets here. The first could have been easier for Martin, getting over the line when Keane missed set darts, second set saw Keane get a fortunate break to open, go up 2-0, only to see Martin get a couple of very well timed good legs to clear the set up. Third set saw four straight solid holds, only for something to happen with Keane's second dart at 72 for the set, allowing Schindler to step in and claim the match.
Price/Plaisier - We thought we had some shocks on day one. Hold my beer was announced. I wouldn't say necessarily the result - I did have a small flier on Wesley. More the size of the victory, I don't think anybody saw 3-0 coming in. First set was two good holds by Plaisier then a break when neither could really score, set two was kind of similar, quick break, quick hold, Price gets one back but couldn't hit the one dart he had for 2-2 and Plaisier's three holds away. He then gets those - five visit hold, five visit hold, should have been another one but match darts were missed, however Gerwyn returned the favour and let Plaisier in for the match. This completely destroys the top quarter as a contest, sure Littler was massively odds on, but losing the 8 and 9 seeds early makes for an incredibly simple quarter final.
Littler/Davies - Davies didn't play badly here. At all. He just missed key doubles at important times, particularly in the first and last sets, and against Luke you can't be doing that. Kind of feel that if David had have nicked the first then Luke would have just stepped up a gear or two and kept him at arms length, but he didn't so we'll never know.
Heta/Bellmont - Damon dodged a bullet here. Didn't show up at all in the first set, letting Stefan take it comfortably, then woke up and looked really solid in set two. Set three was then back to set one - really couldn't score, it wasn't quite as bad but it puts Damon on the ropes. Fourth set could very easily have gone south, missing one for the set and letting Bellmont in for 2-2 and darts for the match, but thankfully he missed two, then Heta brought out his best stuff when it mattered the most.
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