The second European Tour event of the year begins on Friday when a number of stars of the game head back to Germany for the European Darts Open, the latest leg of what is effectively the qualifying process for the European Championship towards the end of the year.
Michael van Gerwen is the defending champion this week after he landed the title last year and he will look to follow up recent successes in the Premier League and Players Championship. Some huge names are coming into form looking to stop him.
Recent Winners
2022 – Michael van Gerwen
2019 – Michael van Gerwen
2018 – Michael van Gerwen
2017 – Peter Wright
2016 – Michael van Gerwen
2015 – Robert Thornton
2014 – Peter Wright
2013 – Michael van Gerwen
2012 – Raymond Barneveld
The Format
The format for this tournament remains the same as before, which means that the qualifiers meet each other over the course of the play on Friday before 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 are flipped this week so it is the second seed who is the highest in the top half. That happens to be the defending champion Michael van Gerwen who will hope to make a successful title defence from this part of the draw. Damon Heta is the man seeded to meet MVG in the semi-final but Dave Chisnall, winner of the first European Tour event of the season is just one of six seeds who will be out to stop that from happening. Danny Noppert, Jonny Clayton, the world champion Michael Smith, Gerwyn Price and Dimitri Van den Bergh make up a right set of seeds in this half.
If the seeded players weren’t enough there are plenty of household names among the qualifiers looking to make their own mark on the tournament. James Wade is probably the biggest name among them while Chris Dobey will need to hot foot it to Germany to get involved in this event. Krzysztof Ratajski made the final of the Players Championship event in this part of the world at the beginning of the week and he is in this half too as is Raymond van Barneveld. Jim Williams, John Henderson, Luke Woodhouse and Ryan Meikle are some of the others who will be looking to cause a surprise or two.
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Bottom Half
This is where the top seed resides for the weekend and that player is Luke Humphries. He was beaten in the final of the first European Tour event this season and will be looking to go one better from this position. Rob Cross is the man seeded to meet him in the semi-finals but the promising Josh Rock, confident Dirk van Duijvenbode, motivated Joe Cullen, home man Martin Schindler, former world champion Peter Wright and Ryan Searle are the seeds looking to run hot this weekend.
The qualifiers aren’t massive household names but there are one or two who will be recognised throughout the tournament. The two obvious ones are the former world champion Stephen Bunting and Daryl Gurney while Ryan Joyce has been in plenty of TV events as has Jermaine Wattimena. The reigning European champion Ross Smith is also in this half as is Jose de Sousa, William O’Connor and Brendan Dolan. Steve Lennon and Ted Evetts are two other notable names.
Betting
I would usually look to get involved with a player in each half of these draws but the top half looks an absolute minefield this week and in truth anyone could come through there so I’m going to leave that tournament in itself alone and concentrate on the bottom half which could be a lot more straightforward. Luke Humphries has a brilliant record in European Tour events over the last 12 months but that bottom quarter is a bit tastier than I’d want.
I actually think the place to be is the third quarter where the seeds are Rob Cross, Peter Wright, Martin Schindler and Ryan Searle. I’m not against the former three per se but this looks like a brilliant chance for Searle to continue his impressive recent form. Searle has won a Players Championship event this season and made the final of two others and was only touched off in a deciding leg in the first European Tour event of the campaign too. Searle will have a tricky test in the second round on Saturday against either Stephen Bunting or Daryl Gurney but the seeds are always vulnerable in that round with the qualifiers having already played a match on the stage. If he wins that he might not come up against a form player for quite a while so at 33/1 I’ll pay to see how deep he goes.
Tips
Back R.Searle to win European Darts Open (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 34.00 with William Hill (1/2 1-2)
Back him here:
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