World Darts Championship: Wayne Mardle expects more seeds to fall
Tuesday 22 December 2015 14:28, UK
Michael van Gerwen, Phil Taylor and other top contenders for the World Darts Championship have been warned by Wayne Mardle that "anyone is beatable".
The Ally Pally festivities will continue on Tuesday, live on Sky Sports 1 at 7pm, with Dave Chisnall going up against the highly-touted youngster Rowby-John Rodriguez.
On Monday, No 6 seed Robert Thornton became the highest ranked player to tumble out of the competition after a 3-0 humbling by Alan 'Chuck' Norris - and Sky Sports expert Mardle believes the threat of upsets are caused by the quality of the unseeded challengers.
Some of the games you're expecting the top players to play like the top players, but they're not.
"[Norris] is ranked 49th in the world, that's a false reading of how good he really is," Mardle told Sky Sports.
"He's probably 20th, in my opinion. So when you equate it like that, it's not really an upset at all, really.
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"The odds suggest that Robert was an odds-on shot but he didn't play like one. Some of the games you're expecting the top players to play like the top players, but they're not.
"Ian White didn't play that well, the No 9 seed. Thornton didn't play well and what happened? You get punished by these players now."
Nine seeded players have been eliminated already and, with the likes of Chisnall's opponent Rodriguez lurking outside of the selected 32, more could follow.
Mardle insists that shock results are inevitable because there is so much talent outside of the world's top crop of players.
"Any player that qualifies from the Pro Tour Order of Merit or the PDC rankings is a quality, quality dart player," he said. "You won't get away with playing mediocre against them.
"[Nine seeds losing] is a lot. But I think it tells you a lot about the difference between being a lowly seed and those that are not.
"If you were to replace the No 20 or No 21 seed with Alan Norris you wouldn't see much difference in the performance of play because he is that good.
"There are so many quality players about that anyone is beatable."
You can watch the PDC World Darts Championship live on the Sky Sports Darts Channel, with Tuesday's action also televised on Sky Sports 1 HD.
Non-subscribers can also enjoy daily, weekly or monthly access to Sky Sports Darts and Sky Sports other six channels contract-free with NOW TV.
