We have back-to-back weekends on the European Tour with plenty of stars of the game heading back to Germany to compete in the German Darts Open. Michael van Gerwen will be looking to complete a quick double in Germany but the draw looks very good this week.
Amazingly this is a title that the Dutch star has never won so I would imagine he will be eager to put that right over the weekend. Max Hopp thrilled the home crowds when he won this last year and he is in the field to attempt to defend the title.
Recent Winners
2018 – Max Hopp
2017 – Peter Wright
The Format
We are using the same format as last season for these tournaments which means that the last 32 of the tournament is played over two sessions of action on Saturday, with the last 16 on Sunday afternoon and the quarter finals on Sunday night. They are all the best-of-11 legs with the semi-finals also on Sunday evening. They are the best-of-13 and then the final in the same session is the best-of-15 legs. The draw has been pre-determined and is played in a straight knockout format.
Top Half
The halves have been switched this week to allow for a mix to the schedule which means that Ian White is the top seed in the top half of the draw. Gerwyn Price and Rob Cross are slated to be his main dangers and were they to make the quarter final there would be an interesting dynamic to it after their Premier League outing on Thursday evening. Runner up last week, Simon Whitlock, Adrian Lewis, Darren Webster, Max Hopp and Joe Cullen make up the seeded players in the top half.
There are some decent level qualifiers in this section of the draw as well. Steve Beaton is probably the biggest name of them. He hit a nine darter on Friday so he’s in good form, as is Jamie Hughes who is having a fine year. Jeffrey de Zwaan is capable of doing some damage too. Chris Dobey, Jerry Jendriks, James Richardson, John Henderson and Vincent Van der Meer complete the top half of things.
Bottom Half
This is where Michael van Gerwen is housed as the number one seed but if he thought he was going to have it easy this weekend he can think again. Peter Wright is seeded to meet him in the semi-final but in all likelihood it will be Daryl Gurney, Dave Chisnall or Mensur Suljovic who will have that honour. James Wade, Jonny Clayton and Jermaine Wattimena have the daunting honour of being in MVGs quarter.
The four qualifiers in van Gerwen’s quarter almost jump off the page at us here. Amazingly, Raymond van Barneveld is a qualifier this weekend. He could meet MVG in the last 16, that is if his Dutch foe overcomes Dimitri Van den Bergh in the last 32. UK Open champion Nathan Aspinall and promising rising star Luke Humprhies are also in that bottom quarter. The other four qualifiers are Steve Lennon, Ted Evetts, Mickey Mansell and David Pallett so we should get some excellent action here.
Betting
Adrian Lewis looks to have found a lovely part of the draw this weekend and at 22/1 I think he is worthy of support here. He should come past James Richardson in the last 32 and then Max Hopp is beatable after that. A worst case scenario of Ian White in the quarters is not bad either. Hopp is the defending champion and went well last week but the draw was extremely kind to him there. It is about time Adrian Lewis wins one of these events again and he may not get a better chance than this weekend.
Given the tough quarter Michael van Gerwen has landed himself in I’ll play one in his half this weekend too. I’ll need MVG to be beaten before a possible semi-final with Dave Chisnall because I’m not convinced Chizzy thinks he can beat him but there is enough to get rid of MVG for us. If he does go them the 50/1 on Chisnall this weekend is big. He averaged 108 in his last 32 match last week and lost to Mensur Suljovic in a deciding leg with a 100 average. He’s playing good darts and if he keeps doing that he is going to burst through in one of these events soon. Given the carnage that could occur if van Gerwen gets knocked out, I’ll back Chisnall for a decent run.
Tips
Back A.Lewis to win German Darts Open (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 23.00 with Betway (1/3 1-2)
Back him here:
Back D.Chisnall to win German Darts Open (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 51.00 with Betfair (1/3 1-2)
Back him here:
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