Schedule Austrian Darts Open 2025: Van Barneveld, Edhouse and Woodhouse among top names on Friday night

The Austrian Darts Open 2025 continues Friday evening with the final eight matches from the first round of the Euro Tour tournament in Austria as the schedule is now set.

The Austrian Darts Open was once the first Euro Tour tournament to be held. Justin Pipe crowned himself winner of the very first Euro Tour event in PDC history in 2012. Michael van Gerwen (2013) and Vincent van der Voort (2014) then provided Dutch successes in Austria before Phil Taylor won the 2016 edition. Van Gerwen eventually triumphed four times, as he also picked up wins in 2017, 2019 and 2022. Jonny Clayton was best in 2018 and 2023, while Littler ran away with the title in 2024.
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The only two Germans of this session also immediately face each other in the opening match of the evening session. Lukas Wenig is one of the four players allowed to play in this Euro Tour tournament after four cancellations just before the draw. The Austrian Darts Open will be his thirteenth Euro Tour tournament. Only four times did Wenig survive the first round, culminating in reaching the last sixteen at the European Darts Matchplay in 2022. For German super-talent Niko Springer, it will be his ninth Euro Tour entry and his third of the season. The 'Meenzer Bub' also managed to reach the final day of a Euro Tour event once already in his career.

Dirk van Duijvenbode is the first of six Dutchmen to make his appearance during the evening session. With Gyorgy Jehirszki, Van Duijvenbode has a favorable draw, at least on paper. The Hungarian emerged victorious in the Eastern European qualifying tournament. So for Van Duijvenbode a good chance to gain important pounds for the Euro Tour ranking. Aubergenius' reached the final day of the Belgian Darts Open earlier this season, but has since had three disappointing Euro Tours, with one elimination in the first round and two in the second.

Wessel Nijman suffered a rare defeat in the first round of a Euro Tour tournament last week. This previously only happened to him on his Euro Tour debut in 2019, after which he managed to win no fewer than eight first rounds in a row. With William O'Connor he meets a dangerous opponent, who is also in good form this season. The Irishman already recorded two quarter-finals on the floor and also reached the last sixteen twice. On the Euro Tour, things are not going as well. In 2024, 'The Magpie' played only two Euro Tours, winning only one match. This year, O'Connor was previously in action at the International Darts Open, but there he was eliminated in the first round.

For the second time this season Raymond van Barneveld and Karel Sedlacek face each other on the Euro Tour. Earlier they met in the last sixteen at the International Darts Open and then Sedlacek won 6-5 after 'Barney' missed three matchdarts. The Dutchman often has a hard time with his Czech opponent anyway, as Sedlacek is now three duels in a row unbeaten against Van Barneveld and is now 4-3 ahead in the head-to-head. Van Barneveld hopes to secure participation in the World Matchplay in the coming weeks. The 58-year-old Hagenaar is currently in a good position, but will have to keep chipping away at his pounds to stay in the virtual field of participants.

After a year's absence, Mensur Suljovic is back at the Euro Tour tournament on home soil. In 2023, 'The Gentle' still made it to the quarterfinals there, while Suljovic was a semifinalist at the Austrian Darts Open in 2018. In between in 2019, the Austrian did manage to win the Austrian Darts Championship, but that Euro Tour tournament has since ceased to exist. Suljovic qualified for this event via the Host Nation Qualifier, and now faces the reigning European Championship winner. Ritchie Edhouse started the Euro Tour season well by reaching the last sixteen in Wieze, but managed only two wins at the three subsequent Euro Tours.

As fate would have it, two Dutchmen were paired up for this tournament. For Doets it will be his third Euro Tour of the season, but in his two previous participations he was eliminated in the first round each time. On the floor tournaments 'Hawk Eye' achieves significantly better results, because there he already reached four quarter-finals. For Berry van Peer, the Austrian Darts Open is only the seventh Euro Tour in his career. In his six previous appearances he reached at least the second round five times, only at the Austrian Darts Open of 2022 he failed to do so. It will be the seventh time Doets and Van Peer will meet in a PDC context. In the head-to-head Van Peer leads 4-2.

The last Dutchman in action in the first round is Jermaine Wattimena. The Machine Gun' was also there last week at the German Darts Grand Prix but lost in the second round to Ross Smith after Wattimena lost a 3-0 lead. Before that, the darter from Westervoort did win 6-3 against Michael Unterbuchner and in Graz he faces another Host Nation Qualifier in the first round. Zoran Lerchbacher worked his way through the Austrian qualifying tournament and with fifteen Euro Tour appearances already has quite some experience on this circuit. The only time Lerchbacher made it to the last sixteen of a Euro Tour tournament was at the Austrian Darts Open in 2022.

In the final match of the evening, Luke Woodhouse and Nathan Rafferty will take on each other. For Woodhouse this is a quick chance to revenge himself, after losing in the first round of a Euro Tour last week for the first time this season. At the Belgian Darts Open 'The Shed' made it to the last sixteen and at the European Darts Trophy and International Darts Open Woodhouse was eliminated in the second round. His opponent Rafferty has only been seen sporadically on the Euro Tour in recent years. He played only one Euro Tour event each time in 2023 and 2024, and the tournament in Graz is also only his first of the season. Rafferty will need some good results this season, though, because he will lose his Tour Card if the Northern Irishman is not in the top-64 of the world rankings in January.

The tournament will be broadcast by Viaplay and PDC TV. As usual with Euro Tour tournaments, the Austrian Darts Open consists of three tournament days. The afternoon sessions start daily at 1 p.m., while the evening sessions start at 7 p.m.

The first round will take place on Saturday. The 16 Pro Tour players are then paired with one of the 16 players who managed to get through the various qualifying tournaments. The top-16 seeded players enter the tournament on Sunday in the second round. The denouement of the tournament follows on Monday, with the third round first in the afternoon session. Monday night the quarterfinals, semifinals and finals will follow.

All participants starting from the first round are guaranteed £1250 in prize money, while the top-16 enter from the second round and receive £2,500 anyway. This amount eventually rises to the grand prize of £30,000 for the winner.

An important detail is that players who are automatically seeded via the Order of Merit and lose their first match will not be awarded prize money on the various rankings. This does apply to qualifiers who are later designated as seeded by the withdrawal of others.

Lukas Wenig v Niko Springer

Dirk van Duijvenbode v Gyorgy Jehirszki

Wessel Nijman v William O'Connor

Raymond van Barneveld v Karel Sedlacek

Ritchie Edhouse v Mensur Suljovic

Kevin Doets v Berry van Peer

Jermaine Wattimena v Zoran Lerchbacher

Luke Woodhouse v Nathan Rafferty