The seeded players join the qualified players for the last 32 of the Baltic Sea Darts Open on Saturday when the 16 matches take place over two sessions of play in what is the opening event of the European Tour for 2023.
All of the big names have made their way to Germany for the weekend so we get to see the likes of Michael Smith, Michael van Gerwen, Gerwyn Price and Peter Wright all gracing the stage looking to make it through to Sunday.
Afternoon Session
We begin with the heavy scoring Ryan Searle who goes up against a Mario Vandenbogaerde who is having a good beginning to 2023. The Players Championship Finals runner up Rob Cross is the next big name into the stage. He goes up against Martijn Dragt before Dave Chisnall gets his European Tour campaign for 2023 underway. The promising Lewy Williams will be his opponent. We reach the halfway mark in the afternoon with a clash between Dimitri Van den Bergh and Ritchie Edhouse.
Joe Cullen is the big name to bring us out of the afternoon interval. He goes up against Arron Monk who will be looking to do some damage now that he is back on the tour. Damon Heta will follow him onto the stage. The number three seed meets the young star Bradley Brooks before the UK Open champion Danny Noppert starts his build-up to the defence of his title next weekend when he takes on Keegan Brown. The afternoon concludes with an all-Dutch affair between Dirk van Duijvenbode and Richard Veenstra.
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Evening Session
Two popular characters get what is a good looking evening session underway when the Premier League star Nathan Aspinall takes on Steve Beaton before Jonny Clayton begins his European Tour efforts with a clash against Ted Evetts. Gerwyn Price has started the Premier League week and he will meet Graham Usher before we reach the halfway mark of the evening with Luke Humphries taking on Daryl Gurney in what looks like a good game.
The second half of the evening begins with the world champion Michael Smith on show. He faces the home player Niko Springer for a place in the last 16 before the tie of the round sees Peter Wright taking on James Wade. Two former world champions compete in the penultimate match of the evening when Michael van Gerwen goes up against Stephen Bunting. The final match of a busy day in Kiel sees two home men battling it out when Martin Schindler takes on Lukas Wenig.
Betting
I’ll go with one bet over the course of the day and that sees Daryl Gurney continuing his positive beginning to the campaign when he goes up against Luke Humphries. Humphries was the main man in these tournaments a year ago but there is a little bit more pressure on him to deliver this year. He won’t be short of motivation because I’m sure missing out on the Premier League as the highest ranked player who didn’t automatically qualify will have hurt but he comes in here cold which isn’t always ideal.
Gurney has begun 2023 positively. He made it to the quarter final of the opening Players Championship event of the season and saw off Alan Soutar and Richard Veenstra in another last weekend before taking care of the World Championship semi-finalist Gabriel Clemens on Friday evening. Gurney averaged 97 in that match and if he can match that display in this one then even allowing for the fact that Humphries is one of the best players in the world, the Northern Irishman can cause enough problems to get over the line.
Tips
Back D.Gurney to beat L.Humphries for a 3/10 stake at 2.60 with Coral
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