The opening day of the European Darts Open on Friday sees the 32 unseeded players battling it out for a place in the second round in Leverkusen where a seeded star will be awaiting them. These are usually competitive days and this shouldn’t be any different.
It might be more competitive than usual too when you consider that after this just five events will be left for those not yet in the World Matchplay to make it into the field so everyone will be desperate to win their match on Friday.
Afternoon Session
We get underway with the Latvian number one Madars Razma looking to make progress when he goes up against Darryl Pilgrim. When they are done the reigning European champion Ritchie Edhouse will be on the stage to meet Petr Krivka before the north and the south of Ireland collide when Mickey Mansell faces William O’Connor. Two players from the European continent take us to the halfway point of the afternoon when Niels Zonneveld meets Lukas Wenig.
The second part of the afternoon gets going with Matt Campbell looking to continue his progression when he faces Alan Soutar before the man who was beaten in the final of the European Championship last season, Jermaine Wattimena, takes on the qualifier Joshua Hermann. The penultimate match in the session pits Andrew Gilding and Kevin Knopf against each other before the afternoon action concludes with Wessel Nijman taking on Brendan Dolan.
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Evening Session
The better action is likely to come in the evening session as always on Friday and it all gets underway with the home star Ricardo Pietreczko meeting Moritz Bohrmann before two energetic stars collide when Cameron Menzies faces Kim Huybrechts. Ryan Joyce is one of those looking to seal a spot in the Matchplay in the coming weeks and he faces Ricky Evans with the opening half of the evening closing out with Raymond van Barneveld meeting Andreas Harrysson.
Joe Cullen is battling to remain in the higher echelons of the PDC rankings and he will be hoping to get the better of Bradley Brooks before arguably the pick of the matches across the opening day takes place when Dirk van Duijvenbode goes up against Niko Springer. The penultimate match of the evening sees Luke Woodhouse taking to the stage to meet Dragutin Horvat before we close out day one with Daryl Gurney meeting the experienced Richard Veenstra.
Betting
Joe Cullen can throw in some absolute stinkers at the best of times and if one comes along on Friday night he could easily be upset by a Bradley Brooks who might be lacking in results but who doesn’t lack for confidence at any time. Brooks is a heavy scorer so if Cullen isn’t on his game here, and in the European Tour last week Cullen lost to Ryan Meikle 6-1 but more worrying was the average. He ended with just 82.69 in terms of his three dart average and just 1/16 on the doubles.
To be fair, Brooks was similar to that in his last European Tour outing where he averaged in the mid-70s against Wessel Nijman in another match that was absolutely littered with missed doubles and you kind of get the feeling that this could be another of those but Brooks scores well enough to give himself enough chances to miss some doubles. If he can get out in front he can put Cullen under pressure and at the prices I don’t think the outsider is the worst bet here.
Tips
Back B.Brooks to beat J.Cullen for a 3/10 stake at 2.30 with Bet365
