2025 Austrian Darts R2 Preview

The first round had its ups and downs for James Punt and in the end, after the afternoon session, he ended up with four winners from seven bets. We have another long day of darts ahead of us on Saturday, check out James’ 2025 Austrian Darts Open R2 preview and tips below.

Ross Smith vs. Chris Landman

Landman was less than impressive in his 6-5 win over Andrew Gilding. Hopefully that is good news for one of our outright selections, Ross Smith. Landman can play better, he has won six of his last ten matches and he did beat Smith 6-3 in a Players Championship match last year, but Smith is 2-1 overall.

Smith is the 1.33 favourite, Landman 3.75. Smith’s superior fire power should be enough to justify the odds, but it is not a betting match for me.

2025 Austrian Darts Open R2 Tip: No Bet

Ryan Searle vs. Ryan Joyce

Another of our outright selections, Ryan Joyce, takes to the stage early. He was not at his best in a 6-4 win over Teemu Harju yesterday, but the young Finn turned out to be a tough cookie once he found his feet. It was a good test for Joyce and he is now in the tournament proper. Joyce has won nine of his twelve Euro Tour matches in 2025.

Searl beat Cameron Menzies at this stage last week, but it wasn’t a good match and he went out in the third round. Searle has not played well in his last five matches and he has struggled against Joyce, losing five of their seven previous matches. They are usually close affairs and their last match was in the World Championship, which Joyce won 4-3.

Searle is the 1.73 favourite, Joyce 2.10. Given Searle’s poor recent form, I have it closer than that, but as we are on Joyce outright, I have enough skin in this game. No bet.

2025 Austrian Darts Open R2 Tip: No Bet

Danny Noppert vs. Niko Springer

Opposing Noppert on the Euro Tour has been profitable for quite some time. He has not won a match since last September and has lost seven matches in a row. However, he did reach the semi-final of PC14 eleven days ago to show some better form but he did lose 2-6 to Madars Razma in ET4 a few days after that.

Springer had little trouble in beating Lukas Wenig 6-1 yesterday and he has won six of his last ten matches. He is still lacking in consistency but he has won two of his four Euro Tour second round matches.

This will be the first time they have met. Noppert is the 1.91 favourite, Springer 2.08. Does Noppert have a problem with the Euro Tour, or is he due a win? His overall form is better than Springer’s and his bad run can’t last forever.

Looking at his matches in 2025, Noppert has struggled against the better players. He has tended to his winning against the lesser lights. Which camp is Springer in? He is being lauded as the best player to come out of Germany, but he is not the finished article yet.

This is another match that looks best avoided. No bet.

2025 Austrian Darts Open R2 Tip: No Bet

Gian van Veen vs. Dirk van Duijvenbode

Dirk is another Dutchman who Van Veen has problems with. He lost the final last Monday to MVG, the second final he has lost to the Dutch Master. Against Dirk he is 0-3. One of just four players he has played more than twice that he has never beaten.

Van Duijvenbode was impressive in his 6-1 win over György Jehirszki. It was a 106 average and he looked rather pleased with himself.

Van Veen can live with that scoring and he is in great form, but is he intimidated by Van Duijvenbode? For his part does Van Duijvenbode believe in himself? I have my doubts but his mental weakness is more apparent when the winning post is in sight.

Van Veen is the 1.67 favourite and Van Duijvenbode 2.28. There is nothing between the two scoring wise, but Van Veen is the better finisher. What Dirk has is that he is the best 180 hitter in the game and when he is lighting up the treble 20, he tends to knock opponents over.

Van Veen was hitting 180s at a rate of 0.34 in ET4 and if we get a fairly close match, we should see plenty of maximums today. Their last match was a 6-4 win for Dirk and saw eight maximums.

2025 Austrian Darts Open R2 Tip: 1 point over 6.5 180s @ 1.85 with Ladbrokes

Joe Cullen vs. Thibault Tricole

The greatest player…..from France, against the greatest player in his own mind, Joe Cullen.

Tricole became the first player from France to play on the Euro Tour, and a couple of weeks ago he beat Michael Smith in ET3 to become the first player from France to win a match on the Euro Tour.

Here, he has the chance to become the first player from France to reach the third round of the Euro Tour. He beat Christian Gödl 6-3 last night and averaged 96.96. Tricole has won four of his last six matches, which is the same as Cullen. In fact, Cullen has lost ten of his last fifteen matches.

He does tend to do his winning against the lower tier of Pro Tour players these days, and Tricole is one of those.

They have played twice before with one win apiece, 6-4 to Tricole and 6-5 to Cullen in a match played in February. Hopefully this will be another close affair.

2025 Austrian Darts Open R2 Tip: 1 point over 9.5 legs @ 2.00 with Boylesports, Betfair

Josh Rock vs. Krzysztof Ratajski

A repeat of their match in ET4 last weekend which Rock won 6-5. It was a bit of an under par performance from Rock and he can do better. He has won seven of his last ten matches and is in fine form. He should be playing in an evening slot, but there you go.

Ratajski beat Mickey Mansell 6-2 in an very forgettable first round match yesterday. He has won four of his last ten matches and four of his last five has he rebuilds his form after a barren spell.

Their H2H record is 8-2 to Rock and he is the 1.50 favourite to add to that. They have played seven best of eleven leg matches and Rock won four of them 6-2, two of them on the Euro Tour.

2025 Austrian Darts Open R2 Tip: 0.5 point Josh Rock to win 6-2 @ 7.50 with SpreadEx

Daryl Gurney vs. Mensur Suljovic

The home crowd got their home win last night as Suljovic beat a poor Ritchie Edhouse 6-3. Suljovic played OK, but Edhouse didn’t turn up. Suljovic was over the moon to a) get a win and b) get a win in Austria. He has lost six of his last ten matches at Pro Tour level and is not a heavy scorer.

Daryl Gurney is not in good form, losing five of his last ten matches and his last two Euro Tour matches. There have been four sub 90 averages and couple of ton plus ones. There is certainly not a lot of consistency.

Their H2H record is 10-10. Only two matches have been played in the last two years and Gurney won both 6-3 and 6-2. Of their fifteen best of eleven matches, ten have been under 9.5 legs, including their last four.

2025 Austrian Darts Open R2 Tip: 1 point under 9.5 legs @ 1.87 with Livescorebet

Mike De Decker vs. Wessel Nijman

Mike de Decker has won six of his last ten matches but has not been showing a great deal of consistency.

Nijman was able to beat a disappointing William O’Connor 6-4 yesterday. He could have done it more convincingly, but that is how he has been playing recently, not at his best. He has won seven of his last ten matches.

De Decker is 4-2 in the H2H records and he won all three of their matches in 2024.

2025 Austrian Darts Open R2 Tip: 1 point Mike De Decker to win @ 1.98 with Livescorebet

-JamesPunt