The opening day of the Czech Darts Open takes place in Prague on Friday when the 32 qualifiers battle it out over the course of the two sessions of play with each winner progressing to the last 32 of the tournament on Saturday.
We may not have the likes of Michael van Gerwen, Peter Wright and Luke Humphries on show on Friday but there are plenty of household names taking to the stage to keep us entertained throughout what looks like a good day of action.
Afternoon Session
I think it is fair to say that the afternoon session isn’t the greatest, particularly the early part of it but those taking to the stage have plenty to play for. We begin with Martin Lukeman looking to make the second round when he meets Patrik Kovacs before Stefan Bellmont goes up against Rowby-John Rodriguez. The third match of the afternoon sees the Dutch player Geert Nentjes meeting David Pisek before we reach the halfway point of the session with Mario Vandenbogaerde facing the Canadian player Matt Campbell.
We come into the second half of the afternoon with another fairly low-key clash between Dylan Slevin and Filip Sebesta. The bigger names come along over the remainder of the session with the WDF star Richard Veenstra meeting Dalibor Smolik before the former Lakeside champion Jelle Klaasen is back on the big stage. He faces Brendan Dolan. The session concludes with a good looking match between Ian White and Mike De Decker.
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Evening Session
A much better looking evening session begins with the classy Jose de Sousa taking on the young star Bradley Brooks in a match which might go either way. Jamie Hughes is a former winner of this title and he’ll be looking to move into the second round of the tournament at the expense of Vincent Van der Voort while the European champion Ross Smith will be third onto the stage when he meets Jani Laurila. The first half of the evening concludes with the veteran Steve Beaton meeting the Lithuanian ace Darius Labanauskas.
The home fans will be ramping up their excitement as we come out of the interval when one of the home stars Adam Gawlas takes to the stage to take on Madars Razma. The third to last match of the evening has the potential to be a good one as Kim Huybrechts faces Callan Rydz before the second half of the Czech Republic World Cup pairing, Karel Sedlacek, taking to the stage to meet Jeffrey Sparidaans before we conclude the first round action with Martijn Kleermaker taking on Stephen Bunting.
Betting
I’m always a bit of a sucker for backing a team or a player who gets an unexpected or second chance in a competition at short notice where they haven’t had time to overthink things and where everything is just a bonus. That is the case with Callan Rydz this weekend. He got in at the last minute when Gary Anderson pulled out of the tournament and as luck would have it he might have landed a plum draw against a Kim Huybrechts who has won just three of his last 14 matches in all competitions.
Five of those defeats have come in his last five matches and a number of those losses overall have come against players you would expect Huybrechts to beat. I’m not sure Rydz is necessarily in that bracket when you consider that the Geordie is ranked higher in the world rankings than the Belgian. Even the recent wins Huybrechts has had have holes in them when you consider that two of the three were against players outside the top 100 in the world. Rydz has fell off his best form in 2023 but he might be pressure free this weekend and at even money he looks a great bet on the opening day.
Tips
Back C.Rydz to beat K.Huybrechts for a 3/10 stake at 2.00 with William Hill
Back him here:
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