Kim Huybrechts is the first finalist at the
Czech Darts Open 2024. The Belgian had not even originally qualified for the Euro Tour tournament in Prague, but now gets to watch whether Luke Humphries or Luke Littler will be his opponent in the final.
Huybrechts lost in the final round of the Tour Card-qualifying tournament for the Czech Darts Open. He ended up being third reserve for this tournament, and was suddenly allowed to travel to the Czech capital on Friday after Rob Cross canceled.
It was for 'The Hurricane' his first Euro Tour tournament of the year. A crucial opportunity for Huybrechts, who at that point still had to do his best to qualify for the World Darts Championship. The World Cup ticket was in after his 6-5 victory over Luke Woodhouse, but with wins over Pavel Drtil (6-4) and Jermaine Wattimena (6-4) he then managed to advance to the semifinals.
In it he faced Niels Zonneveld, who needed one more win to knock Dirk van Duijvenbode out of the European Championship field. Scoring-wise Zonneveld was the better player against Huybrechts. With a 16-darter and a 13-darter he took a 3-1 lead, and an 11-darter made it 4-2. In the eighth leg, however, Zonneveld missed four chances to keep his break. A 22-darter brought Huybrechts back to 4-4.
In the ninth leg there was another break for Zonneveld, but then four more misses on the doubles followed. Huybrechts hit double 20 to sign for 5-5, after which Zonneveld forced another break via an 11-darter.
Zonneveld was allowed to throw for the match, but missed a matchdart on the bullseye from 124. Huybrechts survived and reached 6-6 via double 18. The leg-decider then went to the Belgian with a 67 finish.
This suddenly puts Huybrechts one spot away from a spot at the European Championship. Moreover, that also qualifies him for the Grand Slam of Darts and puts Huybrechts in good position to make it to the World Matchplay and World Grand Prix in 2025.
