The third European Tour event of the year takes place this weekend when the show heads back to Germany for the International Darts Open as the qualifying campaign for the European Championship continues.
Gerwyn Price did his chances of reaching the main event no harm at all in this tournament last year when he took the trophy home and he is in the field looking to make a successful defence of the title. A decent enough field opposes him.
Recent Winners
2023 – Gerwyn Price
2022 – Gerwyn Price
2020 – Joe Cullen
2019 – Gerwyn Price
2018 – Gerwyn Price
2017 – Peter Wright
2016 – Mensur Suljovic
2015 – Michael Smith
The Format
The format for these tournaments remains the same as before, which means that the unseeded players meet on Friday for a shot at a seeded player in the last 32 of the tournament which 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
Dave Chisnall remains the number one seed for the tournament this week even though we have had a couple of European Tour events so far. In what has to be suggested to be a weaker half of the draw he is seeded to meet Damon Heta in the semi-final but while the half is the weaker of the two there is still a competitive look about it. The other six seeds are Joe Cullen, Jonny Clayton, Danny Noppert, Ryan Searle, Dirk van Duijvenbode and Krzysztof Ratajski.
That might open the door for some of the unseeded players to have a good run at this and three of those jump off the page in this top half of the draw. They are the multiple European Tour event winner Peter Wright while UK Open champion Dimitri Van den Bergh is here as well and the man who won a Players Championship event earlier in the week in Chris Dobey is in the field too. We also have the World Matchplay champion Nathan Aspinall lining up in this half along with the likes of Richard Veenstra, Martin Schindler, Callan Rydz, Daryl Gurney and Gabriel Clemens.
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Bottom Half
The world champion Luke Humphries won the previous European Tour event and he’ll go in search of the double from the bottom half of the draw this week. If everything goes to the seeding then he will meet the defending champion Gerwyn Price in the semi-final but The Masters champion Stephen Bunting, former World Championship winner Michael Smith, Rob Cross, Josh Rock, Ross Smith and Ricardo Pietreczko are the other seeds wanting to get a look in at some point.
There are some big names among the unseeded players in the bottom half of the draw as well. Raymond van Barneveld would be the biggest of them but James Wade isn’t a million miles behind while Simon Whitlock and Mervyn King have both competed in world finals. The former Grand Slam champion Jose de Sousa is in this half of the draw while young stars Gian van Veen and Mike De Decker will be looking for a decent weekend.
Betting
I’m not the biggest fan of Damon Heta but there is no getting away from the fact that he has landed a very comfortable looking draw to have a good tilt at this title. He is in the top half of the draw which is exactly where I want my outright pick to be and we are talking about a player who has won a Players Championship event and reached the semi-final of the UK Open in the opening couple of months of the season, so he is in decent enough form and potentially under the radar at 25/1.
The seeds in his half of the draw are Ryan Searle, whose early season form looks to have dropped off, Dirk van Duijvenbode who is still battling coming back to his best, and Krzysztof Ratajski who has offered little in recent times. The seeds he could face in the semi-final are Dave Chisnall, Joe Cullen, Jonny Clayton and Danny Noppert so there isn’t too much to worry about there either. Heta has a comfortable early draw to build his way into the tournament and I think he’s the value selection at 25s.
Tips
Back D.Heta to win International Darts Open (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 26.00 with Boylesports (1/2 1-2)
