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The sixteen unseeded players booked their places in the second round of the International Darts Open on Friday, and they will play the sixteen seeded players on Saturday, which again will be split up into two sessions. All games are the best of eleven legs.
Afternoon Session:
Mark Barilli, who beat Home Nation Qualifier Daniel Zygla 6-4 yesterday will be first on stage to face Steve Beaton in the afternoon session. The number fourteen seed needs to play himself into some form, and here would be the perfect place to start for the World number 23.
Benito van de Pas, who appears as a seed for the first time in his career on the European Tour, comes up against the experienced Mensur Suljovic in the second match of the afternoon. The Austrian overcame Mark Walsh 6-2 yesterday to make it this far.
Robert Marijanovic, who whitewashed Christian Kist yesterday will be looking to do exactly the same thing to his opponent on Saturday afternoon when he faces Brendan Dolan in the third match of the afternoon.
Robert Thornton will begin his International Darts Open campaign with a match against Thomas Seyler, who beat Antonio Alcinas to make it into the second round. Thornton made the final of a ProTour event in April, but has failed to make an impression in any tournaments.
Justin Pipe made the final of the last European Tour event and ended up losing to a near unstoppable Michael van Gerwen in Venray. The number nine seed will play James Wilson, who beat Eddie Dootson 6-2 on Friday to get here.
Dave Chisnall is the number thirteen seed for this weekend, meaning that he will face tougher opponents on the way to the semi-finals and final should he make it that far. He will begin his weekend against Matthew Edgar who beat Darren Webster in a last-leg decider on Friday.
Cristo Reyes played well yesterday in the first round and averaged over 100 as he beat Dean Winstanley 6-1. He will be looking to play exactly the same way when he comes up against Premier League player Kim Huybrechts in the second round.
Micky Mansell made it through to the second round yesterday after a solid win over Jeffery de Zwann, and if he plays like he did last week in the World Cup he could do a long way in this tournament. His next challenge is number seven seed Ian White.
Evening Session:
Jamie Lewis knocked out his World Cup Welsh teammate Mark Webster in the first round to make it here, and he will face an in-form Terry Jenkins who came so close to beating Michael van Gerwen in the last European Tour event.
Michael Smith, seeded number three for this event, will kick off his campaign against Johnny Clayton, who came from 3-0 behind against Jyhan Artut to win 6-4 in the first round on Friday dropping just one leg from seven to make it this far.
Rowby-John Rodriguez knocked out Adam Hunt in the first round to progress to the second round, and he will play number six seed Vincent van der Voort, who will be looking to make it far in this event after being knocked out in the last 32 the last couple of times.
Number two seed Peter Wright will be looking to repeat the form he showed last week representing Scotland in the World Cup as he and Gary Anderson guided Scotland to the final. ‘Snakebite’ will play Matt Clark in the last 32.
Max Hopp has had a good couple of days playing darts to say the least. He hit a nine-darter at the qualifiers on Thursday before he progressed to the second round on Friday, beating Kevin McDine 6-2. He will play Mervyn King in the second round.
Stephen Bunting cruised into the second round after beating Jamie Robertson 6-2, and he will be coming up against the number fifteen seed Jamie Caven in one of the standout ties of the second round of the competition.
William O’Connor made it through to the second stage of the event after beating Mike De Decker 6-2 on Friday afternoon and will now take on number one seed Michael van Gerwen, who is unbeaten on the European Tour this year.
Simon Whitlock played solidly last week for Australia in the World Cup of Darts, but was unfortunately let down a bit by Paul Nicholson, who is extremely low on confidence. Nevertheless, he will play Daryl Gurney in the second round.
