Van Gerwen, Smith, Lewis and Webster late withdrawals from German Darts Open as four players receive byes into second round

While the draw was confirmed for the German Darts Open taking place in Jena this weekend, the main names came from the withdrawals with Michael van Gerwen, Michael Smith, Adrian Lewis and Darren Webster deciding against travelling to Germany.

Van Gerwen while not revealing which has previously said that he will not play in all remaining European Tour tournaments with the recent World Series and the fact he is already qualified for the European Championship likely factors, with the same potentially going for Smith.

Last week, it was Gerwyn Price and Rowby-John Rodriguez who withdrew late with the latter due to family reasons and a lot of debate has occurred about a system in place for late withdrawals.

As a result of this week's withdrawals, Martin Schindler and Dave Chisnall have been elevated to seeded status while Ross Smith, Lewy Williams, Steve Beaton and Joe Murnan have all received byes meaning only six games a session on Friday.