Schedule Friday night at European Darts Grand Prix 2025 with Schindler, Ross Smith, Cullen, Van Barneveld and De Decker in action

Another eight matches from the first round of the European Darts Grand Prix 2025 are scheduled for Friday night. Among others Joe Cullen, Martin Schindler, Raymond van Barneveld and Mike de Decker will be in action. They will compete for a spot in the last 32 of the Euro Tour tournament in Sindelfingen.

This is the 11th time the European Darts Grand Prix has been played. The very first edition of this event was in 2014, and was won by Mervyn King. Remarkably, in ten editions there have been as many as nine different winners. Michael van Gerwen (2016 and 2018) is the only player to win this tournament more than once. Other winners include Kim Huybrechts (2015), Peter Wright (2017), Ian White (2019), Jose de Sousa (2020), Luke Humphries (2022), Rob Cross (2023) and Gary Anderson (2024).
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A match due to happen in the afternoon session, the venue was evacuated which means that Wattimena and Klose now have to wait but they will start the evening session after the fire alarm earlier.

A delightful match to start the evening session in Sindelfingen. Although Ryan Searle has already won a Players Championship tournament, you cannot say that 'Heavy Metal' has started the season nicely. Especially on the Euro Tour, the results are lagging behind. He only made it to the third round once, something he had already done three times at this time last year. Niels Zonneveld continues to make progress with small steps every season. This year the tally already stands at two quarterfinals and one semifinal at the ranking tournaments. A next step for him is placement for majors such as the World Matchplay and the World Grand Prix.

Joe Cullen made the final day at each of the last two Euro Tours and has also shown great things on the floor. At Players Championship 1 'The Rockstar' already reached the final and at Players Championship 5 Cullen even took the overall victory. Marcel Erba is a completely inexperienced player who will make his debut on the Euro Tour. The German already played some Challenge Tour tournaments this season, but never made it past the last 128.

Mike de Decker starts this match with the knowledge that he has passed Dimitri van den Bergh in the world rankings and can call himself the best dart player in Belgium. 'The Real Deal' is now ranked No. 20 in the world, but De Decker no doubt wants to make his move into the top-16 soon. Max Hopp surprisingly won his Tour Card back earlier this season and is not doing without merit on his return to the Pro Tour circuit. The German is virtually seeded for the World Darts Championship, although of course we are still early in the season. Nevertheless, this shows that Hopp has not been idle in recent years.

After two disappointing Euro Tour appearances, it is all hands on deck for Raymond van Barneveld not to lose his World Matchplay spot. The Dutchman currently holds the penultimate qualification spot and sees the competition rapidly approaching. 'Barney' was not lucky in the draw, as he was paired with Krzysztof Ratajski. Once upon a time, the Pole was Van Barneveld's absolute fear opponent, as Ratajski won all five meetings with the Dutch darts legend between 2018 and 2022. Meanwhile, 'Barney' did win the last two duels against 'The Polish Eagle'. Ratajski recently achieved another great result by reaching the last eight at the German Darts Grand Prix.

Andrew Gilding is basically doing this season what he has been doing for years. Pounding his pounds, with an outlier here and there. Highlights this season were two semifinals and a quarterfinal on the floor. On the Euro Tour, Gilding is doing solidly; in three of four tournaments he made it through the first round and in Riesa, 'Goldfinger' made it to the final day. Gabriel Clemens was the best German in the world rankings not so long ago, but has already been surpassed in the pecking order by Martin Schindler, and Ricardo Pietreczko is now also above 'The German Giant'. Clemens played 11 of the 13 Euro Tours last season, but this European Darts Grand Prix is only his first of 2025. The head-to-head does offer prospects for the German, as he won six of the previous seven matches against Gilding.

Martin Schindler will undoubtedly have traveled to Sindelfingen with a lot of confidence, a week after winning a Euro Tour tournament for the third time in barely a year. 'The Wall' was the strongest at the Austrian Darts Open last week, taking his second ranking title of the season after his earlier triumph at Players Championship 8. His opponent Callan Rydz was still in the quarter-finals of the World Darts Championship at the beginning of this year, but has not been able to carry this form through to the first months of the Pro Tour season. At his two previous Euro Tours, Rydz flew out in the first round, and results on the floor have not been spectacular either, except for one semifinal. Perhaps a good result at this tournament could breathe new life into "The Riot's" season.

Ross Smith is the best player on the Euro Tour this season who has yet to win a title. At all five tournaments 'Smudger' made it to the final day, and at the Austrian Darts Open even made it to the final. Earlier, the Englishman reached two quarter-finals and one semifinal, which already brings the tally to 36,500 pounds on the Euro Tour this season. It seems only a matter of time until Smith actually wins a Euro Tour himself. With Paul Krohne, he meets one of the Host Nation Qualifiers. It will be the second Euro Tour of his career for Krohne, after he competed in the European Darts Trophy earlier this season and lost in the first round.

At the end of the evening it is Dirk van Duijvenbode's turn. 'Aubergenius' had a strong weekend in Austria last week, but still the feeling prevailed that there might have been more in it than a quarterfinal place. However, it was another sign that the Dutchman is making his presence felt in the final stages of tournaments. His opponent William O'Connor had not originally qualified for this tournament, but is one of two substitutes due to cancellations. The Irishman has been performing very disappointingly at the Euro Tours in recent years, being eliminated in the first round in seven of his last nine appearances. By comparison; at his first 27 Euro Tours, O'Connor lost his opening match only eight times.

The tournament will be broadcast by PDC TV. As usual with Euro Tour tournaments, the European Darts Grand Prix consists of three tournament days. The afternoon sessions start daily at 12 p.m., while the evening sessions start at 6 p.m.

The first round will take place on Friday. 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 Saturday in the second round. The denouement of the tournament follows on Sunday, with the third round first in the afternoon session. Sunday 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.

Friday, May 2.

Ryan Searle v Niels Zonneveld

Joe Cullen v Marcel Erba

Mike De Decker v Max Hopp

Raymond van Barneveld v Krzysztof Ratajski

Andrew Gilding v Gabriel Clemens

Martin Schindler v Callan Rydz

Ross Smith v Paul Krohne

William O'Connor v Dirk van Duijvenbode