The European Tour circuit rolls into Austria this weekend for the Austrian Darts Open, the fifth event of the campaign which all contributes to the order of merit in which the qualifiers for the European Championship are selected from.
Michael van Gerwen won this title a year ago for his third title in four renewals of this event. He will be in the field looking to keep hold of the crown but a very good field is going to oppose him and look to take the title from him.
Recent Winners
2022 – Michael van Gerwen
2019 – Michael van Gerwen
2018 – Jonny Clayton
2017 – Michael van Gerwen
2016 – Phil Taylor
2014 – Vincent van der Voort
2013 – Michael van Gerwen
2012 – Justin Pipe
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
We are still in the rankings of the European Tour from last season when determining the seeding list for this week which means that Luke Humphries is the number one seed and he is in the top half of the draw this weekend as a result. This is a tasty weekend though, so much so that the last seed into the draw is the UK Open champion Andrew Gilding. He is also in the top half, as are the finalist of the last European Tour event, Nathan Aspinall, the finalist here a year ago in Danny Noppert, World Cup winner Damon Heta, form house Dirk van Duijvenbode, Jonny Clayton and Joe Cullen.
This is a half of the draw where the qualifiers are tasty enough as well. Not for the first time Daryl Gurney and Stephen Bunting have qualified for an event and meet in the first round while Ian White is starting to show signs of his best form too. Premier League star and Masters champion Chris Dobey is also in this top half. Other names to keep an eye on include Luke Woodhouse, Jelle Klaasen, who will be looking to do some damage to boost his chances of getting back on tour next season, William O’Connor and Ryan Meikle. Rowby-John Rodriguez will look to thrill the home crowds.
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Bottom Half
Dave Chisnall is always a threat in these European Tour events having won one last season and then followed it up with another one this term. He is the number two seed and the highest seed in the bottom half of the draw. Also lurking in this bottom half is the defending champion Michael van Gerwen. Those two could meet in the semi-final but the world champion Michael Smith, former world champion Peter Wright, new sensation Josh Rock, Martin Schindler, Rob Cross and Ryan Searle are the other seeds in this half.
There are some big names among the unseeded players in this half of the draw, none bigger than Raymond van Barneveld although Simon Whitlock and Kim Huybrechts are big enough in their own right. Krzysztof Ratajski won a tournament recently and he is unseeded in this section while John Henderson will look to take advantage of qualifying even though he doesn’t have a tour card. Cameron Menzies, Ricky Evans and Brendan Dolan are others to keep an eye on while Mensur Suljovic will hope for a decent run in his home tournament.
Betting
Danny Noppert has already won a tournament in 2023 and he has made the semi-final of a European Tour event when he ran into Gerwyn Price at the beginning of the insane burst of form he has displayed over the last six weeks or so. Either side of that I think it has been a quiet period for the UK Open winner from last season but when you consider all of the big names are jet setting and driving all across Europe for the Premier League and European Tour events that might not be a bad thing here.
Noppert should have good memories of this tournament having made it to the final here a year ago when Michael van Gerwen was too good for him. The positive for ‘The Freeze’ is that there is no Gerwyn Price to run into this weekend because he has given this tournament a miss and van Gerwen is in the other half of the draw so they can’t meet until the final again. That doesn’t mean the draw is uncompetitive for Noppert because it is but the Premier League players might feel jaded while the form of the likes of Damon Heta and Dirk van Duijvenbode has generally been better on the floor. If the good version of Noppert shows up here the 33/1 could quickly look too big.
Tips
Back D.Noppert to win Austrian Darts Open (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 34.00 with Coral (1/2 1-2)
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