2025 Czech Darts Open R1 Preview & Tips – JP
2025 Czech Darts Open R1 Preview
James Punt has already posted his outright, player by player preview, you can read that here. His 2025 Czech Darts Open R1 preview is below.
Ricardo Pietreczko vs. Benjamin Pratnemer
Pikachu remains in poor form and being first up on a Euro Tour stage on a Friday afternoon is the graveyard shift. He may find it harder to get the juices flowing and he is a player that is better with a big crowd, so long as they are not on his back.
Pietreczko has lost eight of his last ten matches, so his confidence will be low. He is struggling to average much over 90. On the Euro Tour, he has won eight of his nine first round matches, but lost 5-6 to Ryan Joyce in last week’s first round.
Around The Block
Pratnemer is the East European qualifier, and he has been around the block a few times. He has played in the World Championship once (losing 2-3 to Justin Pipe) and he has played in three Euro Tours before. He lost all three matches but took five legs off Plaisier in 2020, five legs off Kevin Troppmann last year and three legs off Lukeman earlier this year, averaging 92.98.
Pratnemer is averaging 85.83 in 2025 and he has won seven of his last ten matches, including wins over Boris Kcrmar and Krzysztof Kciuk in the qualifier for this, last month.
Pietreczko deserves to be favourite, he plays at a higher level, but he is out of form and with this match being first up, I think he is vulnerable. Pietreczko is the 1.48 favourite with Pratnemer 3.10. Could the Slovak get his first Euro Tour win? He is bound to have a few mates in the crowd, indeed they might be the crowd.
2025 Czech Darts Open R1 Tip: 1 point Benjamin Pratnemer to win +1.5 legs @ 2.20 with Betfred
Madars Razma vs. Lukas Unger
The market has Razma as the 1.10 favourite and Unger the rank outsider at 8.00. Unger came through the local qualifier, so he will have support, but he only averaged 76.49 and that should be meat and drink for Razma. No bet.
2025 Czech Darts Open R1 Tip: No Bet
Andrew Gilding vs. Darius Labanauskas
This is a match that will pass slowly. Lucky D is a former World Championship quarter finalist and a very good player on his day. He has lost his tour card and plays his darts on the Nordic Baltic tour, the Challenge Tour and he has gotten quite a few Pro Tour call ups as a reserve. He is averaging 88.71 in 2025.
Darius played Iast week’s two Players Championship events and got wins over Peter Wright, Ian White and Kevin Doets, but also lost a match to Cor Dekker, averaging just 78.88. Consistent he is not.
Labanauskas has played in two Euro Tour events this year. He lost 4-6 to Van Duijvenbode in ET1, beat Ryan Searle in ET3 before losing 4-6 to Bunting. He averaged over a ton in both those matches.
Goldfinger has lost seven of his last ten matches, including a first-round loss to Mensur Suljovic last weekend. This will be something similar. He has last three of his eight first round matches in 2025. He has been struggling to average above 90 in recent weeks and is vulnerable.
Gilding is the 1.50 favourite, which is mad given his form. Labanauskas is the value bet.
2025 Czech Darts Open R1 Tip: 1 point Darius Labanauskas to win @ 2.75 with Betfred, SpreadEx
Cameron Menzies vs. Ian White
Ian White is still in the top 50 and is not worrying about keeping his card, but all these opportunities are important ranking wise. White has won five of his last ten matches, but he was hammered 1-6 by Joe Cullen this time last week. He does have a good A game but absolutely no consistency.
Menzies is not in the same sort of form he was earlier this season. Indeed, at the end of 2024 he was averaging 95.85, but as of now, just 92.87. A significant drop in performance in other words.
Menzies has won seven of his last ten matches, hit three sub 90 averages and lacks the kind of consistency he was showing last year and earlier this year. He has won seven of his nine first round matches on the Euro Tour this year, but lost 5-6 to Christian Kist last weekend, but he did play quite well in that one.
White leads the H2H stats 7-4 and in 2025 it is 1-1, both floor matches. Menzies has won three of their last four, which reflects the direction of travel in their careers.
Cam Menzies is the 1.65 favourite, White is being backed and is the 2.50 outsider. Menzies is almost a pick, but the odds are only fair given that both players’ consistency leaves a lot to be desired. No bet.
2025 Czech Darts Open R1 Tip: No Bet
Jermaine Wattimena vs. Brendan Dolan
Since winning his first PDC title at the end of July, Wattimena has played five matches and lost three, his last three, including a 5-6 loss to Leon Webber last week. He was 5-2 up in that match and he was not happy.
His record on the Euro Tour in 2025 is poor. He has lost four first round matches and not got beyond the third round. He is opposable, but with Brendan Dolan?
Dolan is a very good, very experienced player, but he does not travel well. This is his first appearance on the Euro Tour in 2025. Last year he played in twelve and lost six first round matches and never won a second-round match. Dolan has won six of his last ten matches, but half of those ten saw sub 90 averages and only three above 91.
Their H2H record is 8-7 to Wattimena but Dolan won their two matches in 2025, both on the floor. They have met twice on the Euro Tour over the years and Wattimena won both, including a 6-1 win last year.
Wattimena is the 1.44 favourite, Dolan 2.88. There is no value in either player. No bet.
2025 Czech Darts Open R1 Tip: No Bet
Ryan Joyce vs. Karel Sedlacek
Evil Charlie is on home turf and had the advantage of playing four matches yesterday in the local qualifier. A nice warm up. He has won seven of his last ten matches. He beat Wessel Nijman 6-5 in last weeks first round, and Nijman averaged 100 in that one.
Sedlacek made back to back Players Championship quarter finals last month. He reached the third round here in 2023 and has won his first-round match in his three previous Czech Opens.
Ryan Joyce was complaining that his arms were sore after working out in the gym. Yes, really. Joyce has won six of his last ten matches, but all this pumping iron has taken its toll, with his last three matches seeing sub 90 averages.
Their H2H record is 4-4 and Sedlacek won their only match in 2025, 6-2.
2025 Czech Darts Open R1 Tip: 1 point Karel Sedlacek to win @ 2.00 with SpreadEx
Luke Woodhouse vs. William O’Connor
Woodhouse has played some decent stuff on the Euro Tour this year, reaching a semi-final and a quarter final last week. He has won eight of his ten first round matches. Overall, he has won seven of his last ten matches and is playing well, if lacking the consistency of the top players.
O’Connor has been a bit famine or feast in Europe this season. He reached the quarter final of the Dutch Darts Championship but lost in the first round in his other three appearances. He has won eight of his last ten matches and is playing with a good deal of consistency. The Magpie needs to reach another quarter final if he is to get his foot in the door for qualifying for the European championship.
Their H2H record is 4-3, which is not a surprise. Woodhouse had won their last three and won them all 6-5. O’Connor is 2-0 on the Euro Tour, but they were back in 2019.
Woodhouse is a better, more confident player these days and if he can land a few blows, he will expose O’Connor’s glass chin.
2025 Czech Darts Open R1 Tip: 1 point Luke Woodhouse to win @ 2.00 with Hills
Wessel nijman vs. Richard Veensta
We are on Nijman outright, so hopefully he gets the job done here. Veenstra is a bit of a journeyman pro and not in the same class as Nijman. Veenstra has won six of his last ten matches, half seeing sub 90 averages.
Nijman averaged 100 in a 5-6 loss to Sedlacek last week, but Sedláček is a better player than Veenstra, who has played three Euro Tour events in 2025 and lost all three, 0-6, 2-6 and 2-6.
