Preview Friday night Czech Darts Open 2025: Nathan Aspinall, Ryan Searle, Gian Van Veen & Joe Cullen in action

From Friday, September 5 to Sunday, September 7, the Czech Darts Open 2025 in Prague is scheduled. This is the eleventh tournament on the PDC European Tour. On Friday night, the opening round will be concluded.

After the Flanders Darts Trophy last week, the Czech Darts Open is the next event in a series of Euro Tour tournaments leading up to the European Darts Championship at the end of October. The 32 best players on the European Tour qualify for this final tournament, so the coming weeks will decide who we will see back in the Westfalenhalle in Dortmund at the end of next month. A number of familiar names like Jermaine Wattimena, Michael Smith and Raymond van Barneveld are currently in 32nd place and will have to work hard in the coming tournaments to qualify.

Luke Humphries starts the tournament as the defending champion. 'Cool Hand Luke' was too strong in last year's final with an 8-1 win over surprise finalist Kim Huybrechts. Friday night the final matches from the opening round are scheduled in Prague, and below you can read which players will appear at the oche.
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The evening session at the PVA Expo in Prague will kick off with a duel between Dirk van Duijvenbode and Cor Dekker. Van Duijvenbode went out quickly at the Flanders Darts Trophy last week and will thus be looking for revenge. To do so, 'Aubergenius' must first get past Cor Dekker. The Dutch-born Norwegian has been in excellent form in recent weeks and also managed to qualify for the World Series of Darts Finals. In principle, Van Duijvenbode should win this match given his status, but it is best not to underestimate Dekker.

Next up is Ryan Searle. Heavy Metal' reached the third round at the Flanders Darts Trophy last week, where he was defeated by eventual tournament winner Luke Littler. Searle has already won a Players Championship this year, but the real standouts have been missing in recent months. Can he really make it through this tournament? Filip Manak is Searle's first opponent. Manak qualified through the Host Nation Qualifier and is on the main table for the first time on a Euro Tour. Searle therefore starts this match as a towering favorite.

Daryl Gurney appears to be experiencing his second youth this year. His two major titles date back years and there were some question marks over whether Gurney would still be able to compete for the major titles. But look, in June 'Superchin' won the World Cup of Darts alongside Josh Rock and driven by that success he has been playing very well ever since. Just last weekend, for example, Gurney made it to the semifinals at the Flanders Darts Trophy, where he came up against a masterful Littler. In his opening match at the Czech Darts Open, Gurney will take on Dutchman Kevin Doets, who lives in Sweden. Doets impressed at the last World Darts Championship by reaching the last sixteen, but this year has been shaky for him. Gurney starts this match as the favorite, although the difference should not be too big.

With Gian van Veen against Maik Kuivenhoven we are then presented with an all-Dutch duel. Van Veen already reached the final on a Euro Tour this year (German Darts Grand Prix) and also won a Players Championship. He is slowly approaching the top sixteen of the world rankings and can make a new attempt at this tournament. With Kuivenhoven he meets a compatriot who recaptured his PDC Tour Card at the beginning of this year, but has had a hard time climbing up the world rankings since then. Kuivenhoven is currently ranked only 105th and could certainly use a good result.

With Raymond van Barneveld, we get to see the fifth and final Dutchman in action during this evening session. 'Barney' has been blowing hot and cold in recent months. He does qualify for most tournaments, but often a quick elimination follows. Moreover, he does not seem to be in much of a mood to be on stage. Last weekend at the Flanders Darts Trophy he showed very little energy. To reach the second round, Van Barneveld will have to reach a good level, Krzysztof Ratajski is a player who always averages between 90 and 100 and is on form this year.

Nathan Aspinall, who missed the Flanders Darts Trophy last weekend, will be back in the Czech Republic this weekend. The Asp' has dropped out of the top twenty on the world ranking list and will be very motivated to get some good results and take his place at the top again. Aspinall has already won two Euro Tour this season and was also a losing finalist. His first hurdle on his way to a third title this year is Jiri Brejcha. The Czech managed to qualify through the Host Nation Qualifier yesterday. He also succeeded last year, but then things immediately went wrong in the opening round after a 6-2 defeat to Ritchie Edhouse.

In the penultimate match of this evening session, Mike De Decker makes his first appearance. The 29-year-old 'Real Deal' is the only Belgian who has qualified for the Czech Darts Open. Last week De Decker already went down in front of his own people in the second round of the Flanders Darts Trophy against Martin Schindler. De Decker declared afterwards that he had not trained enough the past months and knew what he had to do to perform this fall. So it remains to be seen if he can reap the benefits of that after a week of training work this weekend. For that, De Decker has to get past Ritchie Edhouse in the first place. Madhouse' very surprisingly won the European Championship last year, but has difficulty to confirm that performance this year.

The evening session will be closed by Joe Cullen and Niko Springer. Cullen, a past winner of three Euro Tours, has now slipped to 30th in the world rankings. So 'The Rockstar' is urgently looking for some good results, starting this weekend. Opponent in his first match is Niko Springer. The 25-year-old German captured his PDC Tour Card early this year and has since climbed to 73rd in the world rankings. Springer is seen as potentially perhaps the best German and is by no means hopeless against Cullen.