Schedule Sunday night at European Darts Open: Can anyone stop Jonny Clayton going back to back on the Euro Tour?

Just eight players remain in the hunt for the European Darts Open title in Leverkusen, with a mix of seasoned champions and rising stars set to battle it out in Sunday’s final session of the Euro Tour event.

The European Darts Open is one of only three Euro Tour tournaments that have featured every season since the tour’s inception in 2012, only missing out during the COVID-hit years of 2020 and 2021. From 2012 to 2016, the tournament was staged in Düsseldorf, where Raymond van Barneveld won the very first edition by defeating Dave Chisnall in the final.

Van Barneveld isn’t the only Dutchman to lift the trophy. Michael van Gerwen holds the record with five titles to his name, winning in 2013, 2016, 2018, 2019, and 2022. Other past champions include Peter Wright (2014 and 2017), Robert Thornton (2015), Gerwyn Price (2023), and Dave Chisnall (2024).
Follow the 2025 European Darts Open via our live scores!

The opening quarter-final sees Canada’s Matt Campbell take on Australia’s Damon Heta. Campbell wasn’t even initially qualified for this tournament but was called in as a late replacement. Since then, “The Ninja” has made the most of his opportunity, seeing off Alan Soutar (6-4), Ross Smith (6-2), and James Wade (6-3) to reach his first-ever Euro Tour quarter-final.

Heta, by contrast, is a regular at this stage. This marks his 17th Euro Tour quarter-final. The 2022 Gibraltar Darts Trophy winner has looked solid so far, defeating Mickey Mansell (6-2) and Andreas Harrysson (6-4).

The two have faced each other five times previously, with Heta holding a 4-1 head-to-head lead. Their most recent meeting was at Players Championship 7 in March, where Heta cruised to a 6-0 victory.

Fresh off his win at the Dutch Darts Championship, Jonny Clayton is eyeing back-to-back deep runs. The Welshman was in ruthless form on Sunday afternoon, whitewashing Mike De Decker 6-0 after earlier dispatching Jermaine Wattimena 6-4.

Next up for ‘The Ferret’ is Scotland’s Cameron Menzies, who edged Kim Huybrechts 6-4 in his opener before surviving a match dart to defeat defending champion Dave Chisnall 6-3. He then saw off Ritchie Edhouse 6-3 to book his place in the last eight.

Clayton leads their head-to-head 3-2, including a 6-3 win in their only previous Euro Tour meeting. He also boasts the most Euro Tour titles among the remaining players – three in total.

Premier League stars Nathan Aspinall and Chris Dobey collide in a mouth-watering third quarter-final. ‘The Asp’ hasn’t quite found top gear in Leverkusen, but he’s done enough to get past Bradley Brooks (6-4) and Ricardo Pietreczko (6-3), despite both performances hovering around the 90-average mark.

Dobey, on the other hand, produced fireworks in his last-16 match against Andrew Gilding, whitewashing the former UK Open champion 6-0 with a stunning 110.84 average. That came after a hard-fought 6-5 win over Niko Springer in round two.

Aspinall holds a commanding 11-4 advantage in their head-to-head record. They met four times during the recent Premier League season, with Aspinall winning three of those. Remarkably, this will be their first ever meeting on the Euro Tour, despite both players having spent several years on the PDC circuit.

Wessel Nijman is bidding to reach a second consecutive Euro Tour semi-final. The Dutch youngster showed nerves of steel in his last match, recovering from a squandered 3-0 lead to eventually beat Peter Wright 6-4. That followed impressive wins over Brendan Dolan (6-3) and Gary Anderson (6-4).

Standing in his way is Stephen Bunting, who has delivered heavy scoring throughout the tournament but has been wasteful on the doubles. ‘The Bullet’ has averaged around the 100-mark in both his matches, yet missed 24 darts at double across wins against Luke Woodhouse (6-3) and Daryl Gurney (6-5).

This will be their first meeting in 2025, but they clashed three times last season. Nijman got the better of Bunting in a Players Championship final and again later in the year on the floor. However, their only stage encounter – at the Grand Slam of Darts – was won by Bunting.

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.

Matt Campbell v Damon Heta

Cameron Menzies v Jonny Clayton

Nathan Aspinall v Chris Dobey

Wessel Nijman v Stephen Bunting