Preview Friday night at Swiss Darts Trophy 2025: Nathan Aspinall headlines as Van Barneveld & O'Connor fight for World Grand Prix qualification

From Friday, September 26 to Sunday, September 28, the Swiss Darts Trophy 2025 is on the program at the Jakobshalle in Basel. This is the thirteenth of a total of fourteen Euro Tour tournaments and represents the last chance for a number of players to secure a spot at the World Grand Prix and European Championship later in October.

The field of competitors includes 48 players and a total prize pool of £175,000 is up for grabs, with the winner alone taking home £30,000. Title holder Martin Schindler won the tournament last year after a narrow 8-7 victory over Ryan Searle.

Below we preview the eight matches from the first round scheduled for Friday night. Multiple major winner Nathan Aspinall headlines the action as Raymond van Barneveld and William O'Connor fight for wins to boost their hopes of World Grand Prix qualification.
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We begin the evening session with Chris Landman against Denis Schnetzer. For Landman, it will be only his second participation in a Euro Tour tournament this year. 'The Countryman' was present at the Austrian Darts Open, where he managed to reach the second round, but eventually lost 6-1 to Ross Smith. Schnetzer managed to qualify through the Host Nation Qualifier by defeating Roman Wellinger 6-3 in the deciding match. The Swiss thus makes at debut on the European Tour. Landman was lucky with the draw and has a serious chance to reach the second round again, just like earlier this year in Austria.

Next it's time for Wessel Nijman, who may take on Ritchie Edhouse. Nijman is having an excellent year on the European Tour and has already qualified for both the World Grand Prix and the European Darts Championship. However, last week he surprisingly lost 6-2 to Darren Beveridge in the first round of the Hungarian Darts Trophy. Edhouse is on the verge of qualification for the European Darts Championship, due to the victory of Krzysztof Ratajski earlier this afternoon he is now in 33rd place, which would put him just outside the boat. So it is a very important weekend for the Englishman if he wants to secure participation in the final tournament.

After that, it's time for Raymond van Barneveld against Ansh Sood. Where it's an important weekend for Edhouse, that may be even more true for "Barney. The Dutchman is currently just outside the qualifying zone for the World Grand Prix, and this weekend is the last weekend that counts for the ProTour Order of Merit. Again, it is Ratajski who is narrowly in the final qualifying spot. Because of his win this afternoon, Van Barneveld will have to reach at least the quarterfinals in Basel to secure entry into the major tournament, provided the Pole then loses in the next round. With Sood he will meet a perfect opponent to at least survive the first round. The Swiss qualified through the Host Nation Qualifier by beating Enes Yavuzcan 6-1 in the final.

Richard Veenstra is then the fourth Dutchman in action, and he faces the brand new Euro Tour winner Niko Springer. The German surprised everyone last weekend by winning the Hungarian Darts Trophy out of nowhere. He beat Gian van Veen, Damon Heta, Rob Cross, Luke Humphries, Josh Rock and Danny Noppert, not the least names. For Veenstra, who was also present in Budapest last weekend but lost 6-2 to Gerwyn Price in the second round, it will be very difficult to beat the in-form German.

After Veenstra it is Jermaine Wattimena's turn to face Stefan Bellmont. Wattimena is still in the race for a starting spot at the European Darts Championship, the tournament where he reached the final last year. At the time of writing, 'The Machine Gun' is in 29th place, just 2,000 pounds above Dave Chisnall, who with 32nd place occupies the last qualifying spot. The Dutchman will therefore have to have at least one more good run in the last two tournaments if he wants to secure participation. So he will first have to deal with Bellmont, who managed to qualify through the Host Nation Qualifier by beating Fabian Limacher 6-1 in the deciding match.

The last two Dutchmen take on each other in the sixth match. Dirk van Duijvenbode crosses swords with compatriot Jitse van der Wal. Van Duijvenbode is already assured of participation in the European Darts Championship and the World Grand Prix and can therefore play freely in Basel. 'Aubergenius' surprisingly lost 6-5 to Tom Bissell last weekend, so he will want to revenge this weekend. For Van der Wal, it will be his debut on the Euro Tour. He managed to qualify by winning the European Tour Card Holder qualifier. There the Dutchman won consecutively from Darren Beveridge, Mickey Mansell and Mensur Suljovic.

The penultimate match is between Daryl Gurney and William O'Connor. The stakes are high for O'Connor this weekend. The Irishman is just under the line for participation in the World Grand Prix, and like Van Barneveld will have to reach at least the quarterfinals, provided Ratajski loses his second-round match on Saturday. Gurney is almost certain to participate in this final tournament. Should he lose this match to O'Connor, it will take a minor miracle to ensure that Gurney is still outside the top-16.

Nathan Aspinall and Andreas Toft Jorgensen close out the first round. Aspinall is having an excellent year on the Euro Tour and is currently in joint first place with Luke Littler on the European Tour Order of Merit with 81,000 pounds earned. 'The Nuke' is absent this weekend, however, so a win in the first round could at least put him in sole possession of No. 1 for a while. He will then have to deal with Dane Toft Jorgensen, who qualified through the European Tour Nordic & Baltic Qualifiers by beating Darius Labanauskas 6-5 in the final.