Wayne Mardle makes World Darts title prediction as last-eight gets underway
![Wayne Mardle has backed Gerwyn Price and MVG to make the final of the World Darts Championship (Image: Getty Images)](/upload/news/2023/01/01/10875.jpg)
Wayne Mardle has backed Michael van Gerwen and Gerwyn Price to fight it out for the World Darts Championship title.
The last-eight of the tournament gets underway today at Ally Pally with both players headlining the evening session. World No.1 Price faces Gabriel Clemens while three-time champion Van Gerwen takes on Chris Dobey.
Two-time runner up Michael Smith is also one to watch among the headline acts on New Year’s Day. Despite both Price and Van Gerwen facing tricky ties, former player - now Sky Sports pundit - Mardle has backed the pair to battle it out in the final although he insisted the world’s top ranked player will have to up his game.
He told Sky Sports : “I predicted a Price vs Van Gerwen final at the start, but Gerwyn knows he will have to play better.
“Gabriel will push him, but I assume Gerwyn will respond. I will assume that until he doesn’t.”
![Viddal Riley warns he is "too elite" to have toughness tested in next fight qhiddkidzuiqqrinv](/upload/news/2023/02/02/649_m.jpg)
Welshman Price recently hit the headlines following the controversy surrounding an offensive gesture during his last match against Jose de Sousa. He sailed through with a 4-1 win but apologised for “any distress caused” by the gesture that some construed to be mocking the disabled.
![Wayne Mardle makes World Darts title prediction as last-eight gets underway](https://i2-prod.mirror.co.uk/incoming/article28844442.ece/ALTERNATES/s615b/0_Cazoo-World-Darts-Championship-202223-Day-Twelve-Alexandra-Palace.jpg)
Three-time champion Van Gerwen, meanwhile, is in confident spirits ahead of tonight’s quarter-final tie as he declared: “It will take something strange to stop me.”
Those bullish words came after his own 4-1 victory in the last-16 against Dirk van Duijvenbode where he was adamant that if he plays to his full potential then it will see him through to a title victory.
He said after his last-16 triumph: “I didn't play well at all, but we are both Dutch and I didn't want to read the papers tomorrow saying I'd been kicked out by Dirk. I didn't want that. If I play like this and I feel comfortable, I'm not going to lose. It will take something strange to stop me.
![Wayne Mardle makes World Darts title prediction as last-eight gets underway](https://i2-prod.dailystar.co.uk/incoming/article28846544.ece/ALTERNATES/s615b/1_202223-Cazoo-World-Darts-Championship-Day-Eleven.jpg)
“In the last couple of years, Covid didn't help me, I had a wrist injury and sometimes you can have a dip in form. But I won the World Matchplay three weeks after surgery and I didn't even know if I was going to play.”
Elsewhere in the quarter-finals, Dimitri Van den Burgh faces Jonny Clayton, while the aforementioned Smith faces Stephen Bunting. Both ties take place in the afternoon session.
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