The Darts roadshow rolls into Germany this weekend for the 2019 International Darts Open. A couple of big stars have stayed at home, so opportunity knocks for the rest. TXMarkets’ darts expert James Punt has produced his usual in-depth preview. Check out his 2019 International Darts Open tips below…

2019 International Darts Open: MVG Absent

This week’s European Tour event is the International Darts Open from its traditional home in Riesa, Germany. It must be said that the field is one of the weakest seen for a while. We are missing MVG as he has decided to take a family holiday having suffered another defeat in a final last weekend and a quarter final loss to Peter Wright in PC23 in the mid-week. His two wins on the World Series has not seen an end to his barren spell on the Euro Tour.

Michael Smith, a very out of form Michael Smith, had already decided to stay at home for a family birthday party. Winner of five titles so far this year, James Wade is not here and we have just six of the top 10 players here. Even the list of non-seeded players is pretty weak and features a lot of players not in great form. Dave Chisnall was another late withdrawal weakening the field further still.

There have been four different winners of this event, Michael Smith in 2015, Mensur Suljovic in 2016, Peter Wright in 2017 and Gerwyn Price in 2018. Kim Huybrechts has been a two time runner up but is not here this weekend. 2015 runner up and 2016 semi-finalist, Benito van de Pas is playing. More about that later.

European Championship Hopes

This the penultimate Euro Tour event of the year with just this and the Gibraltar Darts Trophy left before the final list of 32 qualifiers for the European Championship is finalised. Players here this week who could really do with a decent run are William O’Connor who is in 32ND place, John Henderson (34TH), Kyle Anderson (t38TH), Justin Pipe (t38TH), Denis Nilsson (t41ST) and Danny Noppert (t41ST). They will be feeling a bit more pressure to qualify and guarantee a minimum £6000 in prize money.

We have now seen two Euro Tour events post summer break and two Player’s Championship events so there is little excuse for players being rusty. The business end of the season is nearly upon us and players will want to be finding some good form. Looking at the list of players in action this week, there are not many that standout as being in very good form.

Three that can be said to be in very good form are last year’s winner, Gerwyn Price, Peter Wright and Mensur Suljovic, all with eight wins from their last ten matches.

Price Is Right Again

Gerwyn Price has played himself back into form and we are seeing more big averages and better performances on his doubles. He has positive mental associations with this event and in a very open looking tournament he must be a serious contender. Price is now the number two seed and he is in a very favourable quarter of the draw. He was the runner up in PC 23 on Tuesday, losing 1-8 to an unstoppable Jose de Sousa. Price is the 11.00 third favourite.

Peter Wright is also winning plenty of matches, but does he look like a tournament winner? He looked in fantastic form in July when he won back to back player’s championships but his form wasn’t great in the World Series. He reached the semi-final of PC 23 on Tuesday, also beaten by De Sousa and he showed some decent form reaching the last 16 of PC24. With three titles won in July Wright looked back to his best. However, in the last couple of months he has looked decent but always prone to throwing in a poor performance and losing. There seems little value in odds of 7.00.

Suljovic in Tip Top Form

Mensur Suljovic didn’t play in the midweek player’s championships but his form remains very solid. He has won fifteen of his last eighteen matches and when he loses it is to a very narrow margin. Suljovic won the Austrian Darts Championship two weeks ago and while he lost to MVG in Germany last weekend he averaged 101 and missed a dart to take that match to a decider.

He is very near to his best form and he wins titles when at his best. We have backed him for the last two weekends and the 2016 Champion must be on the shortlist once again.

Adrian Lewis has won seven from ten and was a semi-finalist in Tuesdays PC23. However, outside of the World Cup, he hasn’t won a title since 2017 and he hasn’t won on stage since 2014.

Can Cullen Build On His Win?

Joe Cullen broke in European Tour his duck last weekend and did it in some style. He was scoring consistently heavily from the word go and he didn’t fold as he has in the past so often. Will that mark a sea change in his game? Will that be the cork out of the bottle? Well he didn’t have a great players championship performance in mid-week, but I think we can forgive him that so soon after such an important win.

Will he have come back down the mountain after last weekends win? That’s a tough one but we know that he has been a regular feature at the business end of Euro Tour events over the years. It wouldn’t be a great surprise to see him going deep this weekend and his odds of 34.00 are good. He is in the very tough top quarter of the draw and asking for back to back wins might be too much.

Glen Durrant remains in good form with seven wins from ten. He was playing his first tournament after a long summer break last weekend and reached the quarter final before losing to Joe Cullen. Duzza played in the mid-week players championship events, winning seven of his nine matches. He must be considered as a potential winner but odds of 12.00 are a bit thin on value.

2019 International Darts Open: Lively Outsiders

So what about a bigger priced outsider stealing the show? There must be a better than average chance with many of the big guns missing or not firing.

Jamie Hughes has already won a Euro Tour title and played himself into good form on Wednesday, reaching the semi-final of PC24 and only losing 7-8 after Dave Chisnall took out a massive checkout with Hughes waiting on a one dart finish. He averaged 98.9 in PC24 and looked to back to something like his best. He is the lucky player to be made the number 16 seed and doesn’t have to play a first round match. Unfortunately, it means he is in the top quarter along with White, Cullen and Cross as the seeds. That is the toughest looking quarter.

Krzysztof Ratajski has been having a great season on the floor and the next step is to bring that game to the stage. He won PC21 just before the summer break and he is now ranked 4TH on the player’s championship OOM. That means that he has been playing well for some time and that he is a serious contender for big titles including Euro Tour events. He has five pro tour titles to his name and he has the game to win one of these. It is the next step.

Ratajski is drawn in the 4TH quarter along with Durrant, Gurney and Beaton as the seeded players. Daryl Gurney hasn’t been at his best recently, struggling to finish off matches and missing too many doubles. Durrant is a big danger but not impossible and Beaton isn’t at the top of his game either. It is not the hardest path to a quarter final.

Henderson Is Playing Nicely

Big John Henderson has also won seven of his last ten and has the added incentive of trying to qualify for the European Championship. If he can win a 2nd round match he wins £3000 which could be enough. However, the fact remains that he has never won a PDC title so tournament odds of 67.0 make no appeal.

For a really big priced outsider what about Benito van de Pas? He has fallen off the radar in the last couple of years, but he was in fine form on Wednesday, reaching the last 16 of PC24, averaging 100.8. One Swallow does not a summer make, but at least it suggests the weather is improving. He was runner up here in 2015 and a semi-finalist in 2016 so he has good memories of the venue. He plays William O’Connor in the first round with whom he is 4-1 up in the H2H’s.

Justin Pipe also enjoyed a good run in PC24, reaching the quarter final and averaging 99.8. He was never a prolific winner even at his best so winning is a very long shot, but he will be a tough opponent.

International Darts Open 2019: Outright Selections

2019 International Darts Open: 1 point e/w Gerwyn Price @ 11.00 with BET365, Betfair, Paddy Power, Ladbrokes, Coral

2019 International Darts Open: 1 point e/w Mensur Suljovic @ 13.00 with BET365, Ladbrokes, Coral

International Darts Open Tips: 0.5 point e/w Jamie Hughes @ 34.00 with Betfair, Paddy Power

International Darts Open: 0.5 point e/w Krzysztof Ratajski @ 26.00 with William Hill, Betfair, Paddy Power

2019 International Darts Open: 0.25 Benito van de Pas @ 201.00 with Ladbrokes, Coral

 

The rest of the tournament will be covered on the TXODDS app throughout the weekend.

-JamesPunt