The European Darts Open, and thus the European Tour, starts today.
The European Tour is back and it begins in Leverkusen. The tour will visit Germany, Austria, Holland, Denmark, the Czech Republic and Gibraltar this year.But, just as mentioned, it starts today in the German, and there are several interesting names at today’s program that do not offer the top 16 of the Pro Tour’s Order of Merit, as they first enter in the second round, which starts tomorrow.Among other things, the entire tournament is being started by Justin Pipe. He will go up against Ryan Meikle.The representative from the PDC Nordic & Baltic region is Madars Razma. He will go up against Matthew Dennant today. The Latvian did well two weeks ago in Denmark, and was also quite close to qualify for the European Tour 3 and 4 in the European Qualification last weekend. So it seems like he will come in good shape for this weekend.
The eveningsession include names like Krzystof Ratajski, Jeffrey de Zwaan, Kim Huybrechts, Mervyn King and Dimitri van den Bergh.
The two most interesting names from tonight’s matches though, are, Glen Durrant and Raymond van Barneveld.
Glen Durrant has never before played on the European stage as he previously played in the BDO. Not only will this be his first European Tour, it will also be his first tournament as a full-time professional, as he stopped in his civil job earlier this week. He will be up against Michael Rosenauer tonight. Not the worst draw for Glen Durrant, who has already qualified for the German Darts Grand Prix next month.
Raymond van Barneveld is back on the European stage. The Dutchman has not participated in a tournament on the European Tour since 2017.
He will go up against Steve Beaton tonight. Historically, the Dutchman have been good against the ‘Bronzed Adonis’, although Steve Beaton snatched the victory in their recent match against each other. Raymond van Barneveld, however, has shown over the past week that he can still participate at the highest level, which he did as late as yesterday, when he got the season’s first victory in the Premier League.
The entire first day of the European Darts Open will be shut down by Wayne Jones, who is going up against Dutch Vincent van der Voort.
All matches can be seen on PDC.tv from one o’clock. In addition, you can get an overview of all matches below.
Schedule of Play
Friday March 22
First Round
Afternoon Session (1300)
Justin Pipe v Ryan Meikle
Pavel Jirkal v William Borland
Matthew Dennant v Madars Razma
Fabian Herz v Scott Taylor
Ross Smith v Ricky Williams
Adam Hunt v Danny van Trijp
Ted Evetts v Martin Atkins (Leeds)
Wesley Plaisier v Jyhan Artut
Evening Session (1915)
Matthew Edgar v Krzysztof Ratajski
Jeffrey de Zwaan v Josh Payne
Kim Huybrechts v Nico Kurz
Jason Wilson v Mervyn King
Michael Rosenauer v Glen Durrant
Ritchie Edhouse v Dimitri Van den Bergh
Steve Beaton v Raymond van Barneveld
Wayne Jones v Vincent van der Voort