The seeded players enter the European Darts Open on Saturday as the tournament picks up pace from the last 32 stage onwards. The entire round will be played over two sessions of play in Dusseldorf with some of the biggest names in the world on the stage over the course of the day.
Afternoon Session
There are eight matches in the afternoon and they begin with Terry Jenkins taking on Johnny Clayton. Stephen Bunting is next in action against the home qualifier Stefan Stoyke before Robert Thornton plays Wes Newton in one of the matches of the afternoon. Jelle Klaasen faces Richie Edhouse and then comes another huge clash as Benito van de Pas takes on Daryl Gurney.
The afternoon finishes with an all-European clash between Mensur Suljovic and John Michael before Ian White takes on Devon Petersen and the action on a high quality afternoon draws to a close with the match between Michael Smith and James Richardson.
Evening Session
Simon Whitlock and Gerwyn Price kick things off in the evening session before the all-Belgian match between Kim Huybrechts and Dimitri van den Bergh. Dave Chisnall then faces Jan Dekker before Peter Wright begins his tournament against Steve West.
The big names continue to come in the evening as Gary Anderson plays Finland star Kim Viljanen before James Wade faces Andy Boulton. Michael van Gerwen plays Jamie Caven for the second time in a fortnight and the round of matches finish with Alan Norris taking on Kyle Anderson.
Betting
There are a couple of 50/50 matches here which I’m tempted to get involved in but I wasn’t all that impressed with the quality on show on Friday which might negate the advantage that those in action on Friday sometimes have given that they’ve played a match on the big stage.
There is one bet I like though and that comes in the opening match of the afternoon as Terry Jenkins faces a banana skin of a draw in Johnny Clayton, the man who beat him in the Grand Slam of Darts last year.
Clayton hasn’t had the best of seasons in 2016 but he does have wins over Kim Huybrechts, Gary Anderson and Robbie Green at various points in the year so he can take out the big names on a going day and he certainly had one of them on Friday when he averaged 96.53 in a 6-3 win over Andy Hamilton. He checked out over 40% in that match too in a thoroughly solid performance.
Jenkins wasn’t anything like his best in the World Matchplay a couple of weeks ago and if he hasn’t found his game in the intervening time then he could be there for the taking. Clayton is overpriced based on what we’ve seen in the last couple of weeks and he’s my only bet on Saturday.
Tips
Back J.Clayton to beat T.Jenkins for a 4/10 stake at 2.75 with William Hill
Back him here:
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