A wonderful line-up is on the program Saturday night for the final matches of the second round of the Flanders Darts Trophy. No fewer than five (former) world champions will be in action at the Euro Tour tournament in Antwerp.
We start the evening session right away with an attractive affair between Stephen Bunting and Scott Williams. The latter gave his calling card on Friday by beating Marko Kantele 6-3 with an average of 100.73. For Bunting, it will be his first match of the tournament. The Bullet reached two semifinals on the Euro Tour earlier this season, but the last one dates back to April.
Follow the Flanders Darts Trophy 2024 via ourLIVE SCORE!
Gerwyn Price makes his appearance in the second match of the evening. The Iceman will meet Luke Woodhouse, after Woodhouse had a good first round match and was too strong for Luc Bogaert (6-3). Price lost his first match each of the last two Euro Tours, so the former world champion will no doubt be keen to get another good result.
The third match of the evening is a Dutch cracker between Raymond van Barneveld and Danny Noppert. 'Barney' impressed on Friday with a 6-0 victory over Maik Kuivenhoven. Earlier this year they also met at the Baltic Sea Darts Open. Then the win went 6-5 to Noppert.
Michael van Gerwen is up next after the Dutch encounter. The 35-year-old from Vlijmen will take on Gabriel Clemens. In the seven previous meetings with 'The German Giant', Van Gerwen has never lost. They also faced each other earlier this season at the European Darts Grand Prix. Then Van Gerwen won 6-3.
What can Peter Wright do in Belgium? The Scot surprisingly won the German Darts Championship last week. In the first round of the current tournament, 'Snakebite' recorded a hard-fought 6-5 victory over Brendan Dolan. Wright leads 11-1 in the head-to-head against Schindler, but the last clash with the German dates back to March 2022.
Luke Humphries will also be in action Saturday night in Antwerp. For 'Cool Hand Luke' it will be his first tournament since the World Series in 'Down Under'. The Englishman left for Turkey to spend a vacation with his family. His opponent Ritchie Edhouse qualified for the second round on Friday by beating Daryl Gurney 6-3.
Andrew Gilding plunged the Belgian public into mourning Friday by defeating crowd favorite Dimitri van den Bergh 6-2. It earned him a meeting with Ricardo Pietreczko, who failed to prolong his title at the German Darts Championship last week. Pietreczko then lost somewhat surprisingly in the third round 6-5 to Nick Kenny.
The final match of the evening will be between Luke Littler and Jermaine Wattimena. For Wattimena it will be his second match in Antwerp, after he defeated Brian Raman (6-4) in the first round on Friday. With Littler he meets an opponent who has never lost a match on Belgian soil. The Nuke won the Belgian Darts Open in Wieze in his Euro Tour debut early this season.
The Flanders Darts Trophy will be broadcast on PDC TV. As usual with Euro Tour tournaments, the Flanders Darts Trophy consists of three tournament days. The afternoon sessions start daily at 12:00, while the evening sessions start at 18:00.
The first round will take place on Friday. The 16 Order of Merit qualifiers and the winners from the various qualifying tournaments then make their appearance. The top-16 seeded players enter the tournament on Saturday in the second round. Sunday will see the denouement of the tournament, starting with the third round in the afternoon session. Sunday evening will be followed by the quarterfinals, semifinals and finals.
At this Euro Tour tournament, a total of £175,000 in prize money will be divided among the 48 participants. They will receive at least 1250 pounds in starting money. The top-16 seeded players who enter the Flanders Darts Trophy from the second round will receive 2,500 pounds anyway.
They do - like the 16 Order of Merit qualifiers starting in the first round - have to win their first match in order for the prize money to count toward the world rankings and the other rankings. The winner of the Flanders Darts Trophy eventually goes home with the top prize of 30,000 pounds.
Saturday, Sept. 7
Second round
Evening session (from 6 p.m.)
Stephen Bunting v Scott Williams
Gerwyn Price v Luke Woodhouse
Danny Noppert v Raymond van Barneveld
Michael van Gerwen v Gabriel Clemens
Martin Schindler v Peter Wright
Luke Humphries v Ritchie Edhouse
Ricardo Pietreczko v Andrew Gilding
Luke Littler v Jermaine Wattimena