2025 Baltic Sea Darts R1 Preview & Tips – JP
2025 Baltic Sea Darts R1 Tips
James has already posted his outright preview and tips, see them here. His 2025 Baltic Sea Darts Open R1 preview is below.
Luke Woodhouse vs. Liam Maendl-Lawrance
Woodhouse has qualified for his first World Matchplay next weekend, but his most recent form sees just four wins from his last ten matches. He may have been getting tight about qualifying for the Matchplay as he could have dropped out of the list of qualifiers as he was only just inside the cut mark. Now that is over, his form may pick up.
He faces one of the world slowest darts players, Liam Maendl-Lawrance. The German Host Nation Qualifier plays on the Development Tour, and he has graced the Euro Tour stage before. He has qualified for four previous Euro Tour events and won two matches, beating Ritchie Burnett in 2023 and then only just lost 5-6 to Danny Noppert in round two. In the following event he beat Robert Owen 6-5 before once again losing 5-6 to Danny Noppert in round two.
He played two more events that year, losing to Barney and Marko Kantele. His scoring was very ordinary, but his trick was to slow the game down so much that his opponents were hugely put off their game. He is a real drag-down merchant.
There is a chance that he will do something similar to Woodhouse.
2025 Baltic Sea Darts R1 Tip: 1 point Liam Maendl-Lawrance to win +2.5 legs @ 2.20 with Betfred
Gian van Veen vs. Johan Engstrom
Gian is the 1.17 favourite to win this but it might not be as straightforward as that sounds. The Sweet Ferret is an experienced player and has played in ten previous Euro Tour events. He has only won two matches, beating Gabriel Clemens 6-5 in 2022 and thrashing Joe Cullen 6-1 in 2024.
Engstrom has played in two events in 2025, losing both first round matches 3-6 to Mike de Decker and Luke Woodhouse. He usually gives a pretty good account of himself, often takes the lead, but chokes when the winning post is in sight. 70% of his defeats saw him win at least three legs.
2025 Baltic Sea Darts R1 Tip: 1 point over 8.5 legs @ 1.83 with Skybet
Jermaine Wattimena vs. Callan Rydz
Wattimena came close to landing that elusive first PDC title a few weeks ago, losing the final of PC18 5-8 to Stephen Bunting. Since then, he has won eight of eleven matches but shown not a lot of consistency.
Rydz is a bit special in so many ways. His talent is great but his grip on it is variable. When he is good, he is very good, but he does tend to throw the towel in very easily and beats himself up like no other. He is in decent form, winning seven of his last ten matches and like Wattimena not with a lot of consistency.
On the Euro Tour, Rydz has only qualified for three events so far in 2025 and he lost all three first round matches with a best average of 92. He did make a semi-final last year, but everything depends on what state of mind he is in.
Wattimena has played in all nine events in 2025 and won seven matches, five of them first round matches.
Their H2H record is 2-2, none of them close, and their three best of eleven leg matches were under 9.5 legs.
2025 Baltic Sea Darts R1 Tip: 1 point under 9.5 legs @ 1.83 with SpreadEx, Skybet, Betfair
Krzysztof Ratajski vs. Richard Veenstra
Veenstra got a late call up for this event but gets a tough draw. He has played The Polish Eagle three times, winning once but losing the other two 1-6. He has lost seven of his last ten matches and went out in the first round of both Players Championship events this week.
Ratajski just failed to qualify for the World Matchplay and he has been playing under the pressure of trying to make the cut for a while. That burden has now been lifted. He reached the quarter final on Wednesday and is playing quite consistently with mid-90 averages.
Veenstra has played in two Euro Tour events in 2025 and lost both opening matches, 0-6 and 2-6.
