The busy end to the darting year is about to get underway and it does so with the International Darts Open in Riesa, Germany. This latest European Tour event follows the Australian leg of the World Series events so the field isn’t as strong as it could be and that cast list was weakened further when Michael van Gerwen pulled out in the run up to the event with an ankle injury.
Recent Winners
2015 – Michael Smith
The Format
We’ve already had the Friday matches so we are left with a straight knockout from the last 32 onwards. The remainder of the event is played out on Saturday and Sunday with the last 32 on Saturday and the last 16 onwards on a busy Sunday. Each match is the best of 11 legs throughout.
Top Quarter
There appears to be a bit of a jinx in this section. I say that because James Wade was due to be in it but pulled out early and since then Michael van Gerwen and Daryl Gurney have withdrawn too. That leaves two qualifiers already through to the last 16 and in terms of seeds there are only two left.
They are Jelle Klaasen and Mensur Suljovic and assuming both get through on Saturday you would think their last 16 match on Sunday will yield a direct route through to the semi-final. Chris Dobey and Mike Holz are the men looking to deny them.
Second Quarter
With Michael van Gerwen out of the top quarter the players in this quarter will be eyeing up this weekend as a chance to make a load more cash and maybe even threaten the title. Dave Chisnall is the main seed in this part of the draw while defending champion Michael Smith isn’t far behind him. Terry Jenkins and Alan Norris are the other seeds in the quarter.
The four men who came through on Friday to oppose them are James Wilson, Darren Webster, Andy Boulton and Jermaine Wattimena so this is a competitive little section.
Third Quarter
All in all this might be the toughest quarter of the lot. Peter Wright is the main seed and is indeed the highest seed left in the tournament. He is joined in terms of seeds by Simon Whitlock, Benito van de Pas and Robert Thornton.
The qualifiers in this section include the hugely dangerous Kyle Anderson, Ronny Huybrechts, Steve West and dancing Devon Petersen. If Wright is a bit jaded after his excursions around Australia this section would be wide open.
Bottom Quarter
This is where the third seed Kim Huybrechts is housed. He is kept company in terms of fellow seeds by Stephen Bunting, Ian White and Gerwyn Price so this should be competitive if they all come through their Saturday matches.
Robbie Green, Joe Cullen, Jim Walker and Dragutin Horvat are the qualifiers who will be looking to stop them with Green’s match with Bunting bringing back plenty of BDO memories.
Betting
Michael van Gerwen’s absence makes me want to take a player in both halves of the draw to take advantage of that and that is exactly what I’m going to do. Finding value isn’t easy with the market dramatically affected by MVGs withdrawal but there are a couple of punts I can justify.
In the top half the man who could well take advantage of his rivals exit is Jelle Klaasen. Klaasen has knocked on the door of these kind of events for a while now but all too often given his ranking he has come up against MVG. He doesn’t have anything like that in his path here and with the other seeds in the half all vulnerable this could be Klaasen’s weekend.
It isn’t going to be long before Kyle Anderson makes a major breakthrough and if he’s on it then it could be this weekend. He must be pig sick of playing Michael van Gerwen having faced him five times in the last three months, two of them in these events. With the Dutchman out of the way we could well see a big run from Anderson.
He has already made the semi-final of one of these European Tour events where he actually beat van Gerwen in the quarter final before losing a semi-final in a deciding leg to Phil Taylor. There’s nothing of that quality in his way this weekend so we’ll see how well he goes at a fairly tidy price.
Tips
Back J.Klaasen to win International Darts Open (e/w) for a 1.5/10 stake at 15.00 with Boylesports (1/2 1-2)
Back him here:
Back K.Anderson to win International Darts Open (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 29.00 with Betfred (1/2 1-2)
Back him here:
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