The Sports Lowdown For All Your News and OpinionsIt’s finals day at the European Darts Open, where the winner of the competition will be decided at the end of a long day. Defending Champion Peter Wright has already been knocked out, but Michael van Gerwen, Michael Smith and James Wade are all that remains of the top four seeds.
The quarter-finals, semi-finals and the final of the European Darts Open will be played on the Sunday, with the quarter-finals being completed in the afternoon session. All games are the best of eleven legs.
Johnny Haines’ reward for knocking out sixteenth seed Benito van de Pas in the second round yesterday is a match against Michael van Gerwen, who was far from his best on Saturday as he eased past Jamie Lewis 6-1.
Alan Norris edged out an in-form Ian White in the afternoon session yesterday in the last-leg decider, and he will face number nine seed Mervyn King, who saw of Wes Newton in the second round on Saturday.
Brendan Dolan played well in the second round in a 6-2 victory over Mark Walsh, but if he plays like he did yesterday, then Terry Jenkins will be a very tough man to beat, who saw off John Henderson in the last round.
Kim Huybrechts played well yesterday to knock home favourite Jyhan Artut out of the competition in a 6-4 win, and he will now face Michael Smith, who beat Mensur Suljovic 6-4 in the previous round, and will be looking to make it two European Tour wins on the bounce.
Mark Webster will be looking for a good run here to make up for missing out on a place among the thirty-two players in the World Matchplay field, and after playing well on Saturday, he collides with number two seed James Wade in the last sixteen.
The number seven seed and the number ten seed meet in the sixth match of the afternoon session. Justin Pipe saw off Kevin McDine 6-4 in the last thirty-two whilst Vincent van der Voort eliminated Rowby-John Rodriguez.
The penultimate match of the afternoon sees number six seed Simon Whitlock in action after he survived a scare in the last round, beating Joe Cullen 6-5. He comes up against Robert Thornton, who also survived a last-leg decider.
Devon Peterson knocked out defending champion Peter Wright in an eleventh leg shootout in the second round, whilst Jelle Klaasen played superbly against Dave Chisnall, who he beat 6-1, despite the number fourteen seed averaging over 101.
