2022 Czech Darts Open Preview

The second renewal of the 2022 Czech Darts Open. It was last held in 2019 when it was won by Jamie Hughes. Yozza’s long reign is over as he failed to qualify and cannot defend his title.

The tournament will take in Prague, in the People’s Republic of Beer. There is a new venue this time and it will be interesting to see if it is any cooler than the original which was said to be the be the hottest stage in darts.

After two years with very few Euro Tour events, we are being hit by five in a row, of which this is the third. This means a lot of travelling for players who are playing in all five, more for those in the Premier League and it was no surprise to see most of the PL players not playing in this week’s players championship events in Wigan. I must say that I prefer when the events are a bit more spread out and five in a row begins to become a bit like a stuck record.

Peter Wright is the big name to withdraw from this weekend. That led to a rejig of the seedings and draw, with Martin Schindler promoted to 16th seed and he has today off.

2022 Czech Darts Open: Seeded Players (1-16)

Gerwyn Price

Has won five of his last ten matches, mostly thanks to winning last night’s Premier League. His confidence has been low, but I fancy his chances in Europe more than back in the UK. He is still coming back from injury, and it seems inevitable that his form is going to improve. Back in the game? Possibly.

Michael van Gerwen

The beast is back. Well, not quite, but he deserves to be favourite and is a possible winner. He has won three of the five Euro Tour events held so far, tops the Euro Tour OOM and is getting to the stage where he will skip events to have time off. He has lost just two of his last sixteen matches and skipped the midweek players championship events to have some family time. MVG is beginning to cruise, but he should have lost the quarter final last weekend, with Dirk van Duijvenbode bottling it.

Jose de Sousa

Continues to lose more matches than he wins, has lost six of his last ten, and has won just two Euro Tour matches in 2022.

Joe Cullen

One of the two premier league players who decided to play in Wigan this week although he only played on Tuesday. He then played in the PL on Thursday before making his way to Prague on Friday. That is a lot of travelling and that will take its toll. He has won five of his last ten matches, and his performances are very inconsistent.

Rob Cross

Cross is playing well most of the time but not getting much out of it. He either meets someone playing better, or has an off match, usually the former. That suggests a bit of a confidence problem. He can’t impose himself when playing well and that must be frustrating. Voltage has lost five of his last ten matches despite having five ton plus averages. Cross could have a good weekend but is likely to find someone too good at some point. On the positive side, he does have a good draw and I expect a good run.

Michael Smith

The man of the moment having won back-to-back players championships in the midweek. He has won fourteen of his last fifteen matches and it will be interesting to see if those two tournament wins can help him turn great play into great results. He beat Clayton 6-5 last night and should have lost but it was a good come back from 2-5 down. Bully Boy then lost 5-6 to MVG, having been 4-1 up.

Dimitri van den Bergh

Runner up to MVG in last weekend’s European Darts Open. Overall, he has lost six of his last ten and his run to last weekend’s final was aided by James Wade pulling out of the semi-final. He is playing well enough but is hard to get a handle on.

Damon Heta

Heta continues to impress and frustrate. There are few players scoring better than Heta, but he can’t cash in. He hit a nine darter on Tuesday, and he reached the semi-final of PC14 and the quarter final of PC15. He reached the semi-final of ET3 but has lost his opening match in the last two ET events. His scoring means he has a chance, but does he have the bottle?

Ryan Searle

Finally showed a bit of Euro Tour form last week, reaching the quarter final before losing to James Wade, who it must be said, wasn’t feeling great and had pull out shortly after that match. Searle’s floor form has been very good, so much so that he felt able to miss the midweek players championship events. He has lost five of his last ten matches and is another player who isn’t quite getting the results he is capable of.

Luke Humphries

Played well to reach last weekend’s semi-final but couldn’t repeat his win against MVG in ET 3, going down 2-7. However, it makes him one of the more successful Euro Tour players this season, with a win and two semi-finals. He has won seven of his last ten matches and his chances must be respected once again. He has won seven of his last ten matches and is a contender. His draw means a possible re-match with MVG at the quarter final stage, but we know that he can beat him.

Dirk van Duijvenbode

Frankly very disappointing vs. MVG in last week’s quarter final. It was his match to lose, and he did just that, missing match dart after match dart. That he would miss was never in doubt. He is in awe of MVG and that makes winning anything where he must face Van Gerwen very difficult. He has won six of his last ten matches and reached a quarter final in mid-week.

Krzysztof Ratajski

Treading water and he has been for a while now. He is playing well enough but finds winning difficult. He has lost half his Euro tour matches and lost five of his last ten matches overall.

Daryl Gurney

Superchin has won six of his last ten matches, but his early season form has tailed off a little. He is seeded this weekend and next which means he is straight into Saturday but also means that if he loses his opening match, his prizemoney does not count to his rankings. He has a tricky looking draw, likely to face Chisnall in round two and would have to cross swords with Rob Cross in the third round should they both win on Saturday.

Jonny Clayton

His ET form has gone downhill as the season has progressed. A semi-final in ET1, followed by two quarter finals but he has gone out at the third round stage in the last two. To be fair, he has played well in both those recent loses, but I expect better from the Ferret. He may just be a bit jaded for these events after playing Premier League matches on Thursday, his draws have been tough, but for a player of his ability, he should be doing better. Clayton has won six of his last ten matches but remains one of the top scorers.

Brendan Dolan

Finally got his first ET win of the year last weekend, beating Andrew Gilding 6-0 and averaging 103. He gave Luke Humphries a decent match in the third round, but he has lost seven of his last ten matches.

Martin Schindler

Has had decent season so far but he has lost four of his last ten matches and he looks like he may have gone off the boil a little. He doesn’t have home advantage for a change this weekend.

Notable Unseeded Players

Nathan Aspinall has won six of his last ten matches, lacking a bit of consistency, but he has gone well on the Euro Tour so far, reaching two semi-finals and quarter final from his three events. He has been relying on his doubles to get him through some close matches and if he can get his treble hitting up to scratch, he could win one of these.

Josh Rock was good for us last week. He won three bets on his way to the quarter final last weekend, but it looked like he may have emptied his tank. He played in the Euro Tour qualifiers on Monday having travelled straight back from Germany to Wigan and lost both his opening matches.

Josh lost his first round match on Tuesday, but he reached the quarter final on Wednesday and put in a couple of big performances. How he will cope with having to jump back on a plane to Prague on Thursday to play again on Friday is open to question, but the schedule is very tough, even for a young man.

Chizzy On Song

Dave Chisnall has a win rate of 70% in 2022 and has won eight of his last ten matches. He reached the semi-final of PC14 on Tuesday but went down tamely to John O’Shea, averaging just 86. Chizzy hasn’t won a title since 2019 and maybe that was on his mind. He is playing better, and another good run is not out of the question.

Sebastian Bialecki reached the quarter final of the UK Open in March, and he now makes his Euro Tour debut. He plays on the Development and Challenge tours and we rarely get to see him, but he has qualified for a couple more of the upcoming ET events. He could be anything, but he has taken his chances well when he has got to play with the big boys, and it will be interesting to see how he gets on.

2022 Czech Darts Open: Ante Post Selections

Michael van Gerwen is the 4.50 favourite and given his Euro Tour record this year he deserves to be. However, he is still beatable, even if his traditional threats are not firing properly. MVG has a decent draw, but he does have Humphries, Aspinall and Van den Bergh in his quarter, and in a best of eleven leg format, he is not shoe in to make the semi-finals.

It must be said that there is no standout value pick this weekend. Michael Smith is one of the form players, if not The form player and he is a 13.00 shot. However, its five years since he won on the Euro Tour and he is in the same quarter as Jonny Clayton, so his odds are no more than fair. It is not a great looking betting event with the favourites being predictable and short on value, but the outsiders with a chance are hard to see.

Nathan Aspinall has been knocking on the right doors, reaching a couple of semi-finals and once his treble hitting clicks, he is going to be right in the frame. It may not be this weekend, his not seeded, has tough draw but his odds look a touch generous.

2022 Czech Darts Open Tip: 0.5 point e/w Nathan Aspinall to win @ 41.00 with Ladbrokes

Rob Cross is playing better than results suggest and his draw is not the worst, He has made a final on the ET already this season and while he’ll need to be more ruthless, he is not without a chance.

2022 Czech Darts Open Tip: 0.5 point e/w Rob Cross to win @ 21.00 with Hills

Hopefully we can find a few value match bets in the early rounds as the outright betting is lacking in opportunities.

-JamesPunt