The opening day of the UK Open is a busy one in Minehead as the first four rounds of the first televised ranking event of the year gets underway in style on a day where everyone in the tournament will take to one of eight stages.
The first three rounds will take place in the afternoon session and then the players who win through that third round will come back in the evening for the fourth round which is where the leading 32 players in the world will enter the fray. Time restrictions will deny us the chance to preview the evening session but if prices go up early enough and anything takes my fancy I’ll post it up on our Twitter feed.
Round 1
This is the round where the players ranked 97-128 in the PDC Order of Merit enter the tournament. They will be pitted against the amateur players and the ones who have qualified through either the Challenge Tour or the Development Tour to make 32 matches. They will all be over the best of 11 legs and the winners move through to the second round which begins shortly after the opening round concludes on a busy Friday afternoon.
Among the big names we have on show in this first round include the young star Luke Littler and former world champion Jelle Klaasen. They are both on the main stage while the likes of James Richardson, Thibault Tricole, Jeffrey de Zwaan and Sebastian Bialecki will all grace the opening round on board two. Board three is where the likes of Christian Kist and Arron Monk will start out while Karel Sedlacek, Andy Jenkins, Niels Zonneveld, Nick Kenny, Danny Lauby and Darren Webster are some of the other players on show in this round.
Round 2
The 32 winners from the opening round of the tournament will be almost straight back on stage and they will be joined by those who are ranked 65-96 in the PDC Order of Merit who join the tournament in this round. Those who are in this stage of the tournament step onto the stage knowing that if they win here they will be just one win away from a possible shot at the big boys in the evening session. Just like the first round, all these matches will be played over the best of 11 legs.
Four matches will be played out on the main stage in this round with the likes of Bradley Brooks, former world champion Richie Burnett and Keegan Brown starting out on this board. Over on board two the American player Jules van Dongen, Rusty-Jake Rodriguez and Mario Vandenbogaerde will begin their title challenge while on board three the likes of Mickey Mansell, Cameron Menzies and Ted Evetts start out. James Wilson, Brian Raman, Richard Veenstra, Nathan Rafferty, John O’Shea and Scott Waites are some of the others who begin in this round.
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Round 3
This is the big round of the afternoon as the winners from the second round join those ranked 33-64 on the PDC Order of Merit who enter the tournament at this stage. Everyone competing in this round will know that they are one win away from a possible shot at the big boys in the fourth round in the evening session. More importantly than that, those who win their best of 11 leg match in this round will be guaranteed £2,500 which is a significant amount to the Order of Merit.
Three round three matches will take place on the main stage with Adrian Lewis, Josh Rock, Luke Woodhouse and Simon Whitlock all beginning their campaigns here. Over on board two the likes of Jamie Hughes, Jermaine Wattimena, Steve Beaton and Scott Williams get their tournament started. William O’Connor, Devon Petersen, Lewy Williams and Adam Gawlas start out on board three while others to begin in this round include Ryan Joyce, Mike De Decker, Ian White, Jim Williams Martijn Kleermaker, Steve Lennon, Martin Lukeman, Mensur Suljovic, Jeff Smith and Ricky Evans.
Betting
I’ll go with a couple of bets over the course of the afternoon. The first of those come along in the opening round where Danny Lauby Jr takes on Jim McEwan. McEwan is a seasoned campaigner over on the WDF scene and in the seniors stuff and is a live contender in this match but Lauby played in the Modus Super Series last week and won a lot of matches and anyone who regularly reads my lower tier darts previews will know that I like activity in that tournament as a huge positive. Lauby competed against the likes of Jelle Klaasen, Jarred Cole, Carl Wilkinson and Andy Jenkins so he had a good week to be involved in. In the semi-final of that week he averaged over 100 but in the main he was in the high 80s and low 90s for the week and that sort of form is very strong. I think he can see off the veteran in this one.
Later in the afternoon Ryan Joyce will go up against Mike De Decker in a match where I expect the Englishman to win. De Decker has shown good things on the floor over the last 15 months or so but we saw in the World Championship that things don’t always click for him on the TV stage. Joyce is much more accustomed to the TV stage and he is probably battling back in his career. He was so unlucky in the World Championship when he ran into Scott Williams in what was a sleeper for the match of the tournament. If he repeats anything close to that performance here then he is going to be tough to beat but De Decker doesn’t convince me on a stage of any kind so I’ll take ‘Relentless’ to live up to his name and win this one.
Tips
Back D.Lauby Jr to beat J.McEwan for a 3/10 stake at 1.91 with Bet365
Back R.Joyce to beat M.De Decker for a 3/10 stake at 1.91 with Unibet
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