The final event of the European Tour circuit takes place this weekend when the International Darts Open is staged in Riesa and by the end of the competition we will know the identity of the players who will be heading to the European Championship next week.
Gerwyn Price won this title last year and he’ll be looking to pick up yet another title to head into what is a larger run of TV events than usual at this time of year. A pretty strong field will be out to deny him a successful defence though.
Recent Winners
2019 – Gerwyn Price
2018 – Gerwyn Price
2017 – Peter Wright
2016 – Mensur Suljovic
2015 – Michael Smith
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
A lot of the draw is the same this week as it was last in terms of the order of the seedings but the halves have been flipped which means that world number one and number one seed Michael van Gerwen will begin his quest to win a title that has so far gone begging for him from this half. If he’s going to claim the title this year he’s probably going to have to play well because he could come up against a Stephen Bunting who will be chomping at the bit to get back at it, James Wade, Premier League finalist Nathan Aspinall, Polish star Krzysztof Ratajski, Rob Cross, Mensur Suljovic and Jamie Hughes.
There is a mixture of the good and not so good among the qualifiers in this half of the draw. Former world finalist Andy Hamilton is probably the biggest name of them and he will be joined in this section of action by the likes of Madars Razma, Andreas Harrysson, Jason Lowe, Martijn Kleermaker, home player Franz Roetsch, one of the stars of German darts in Gabriel Clemens and the former UK Open quarter finalist Steve West.
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Bottom Half
This is the half of the draw where Jose de Sousa will be looking for back to back European Tour titles from but it is actually the defending champion Gerwyn Price who is the main seed in what looks like a pretty competitive section of the bracket. There are some other tasty seeds in the bottom half though in the form of World Grand Prix semi-finalist Dave Chisnall, Joe Cullen, Ian White, former winner of this event Michael Smith, Daryl Gurney and an Adrian Lewis who is returning to action this weekend.
As far as the qualifiers go in this part of the draw there is a mix of the good and one or two parts of the bad too. Danny Noppert is one of the players on show while Scott Baker and another of the home brigade in Martin Schindler are two others. Jesus Noguera, Robert Marijanovic, Ron Meulenkamp, the German number one Max Hopp and a Ross Smith who averaged 113 in his win on Friday are the men to make up the draw.
Betting
After picking the winner of last week’s event I’m going to try one bet in a bid to do the same this week. With the seeds largely being the same as last week we have a little bit of form to go by but the negative to that is that the bookmakers are all too aware of who is going well and who isn’t and the prices have switched around accordingly, however there is one player who doesn’t seem to have been tightened to the extent the others have. That is Ian White and he’s my bet for this weekend.
White made the semi-final last weekend where he only went down in a deciding leg to the eventual champion Jose de Sousa so it could have been a lot different for a man who has looked increasingly comfortable at the European Tour level over the last couple of seasons. White comes in here as the third seed and could come up against Michael Smith in the last 16 but he beat him 6-2 last week and from there the draw is set to open right up. You’d say on form the two dangermen in the bottom half are Gerwyn Price and Jose de Sousa but only one of them is going to make it past the last 16 at best and White can’t play either until the semi-final. At 28/1 he looks a big price here.
Tips
Back I.White to win International Darts Open (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 29.00 with 888sport
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