After a short break our darts expert James Punt is back with a bang this weekend. The Austrian Darts Championship is in his sights and he has produced a top class preview. Check out his Austrian Darts Championship preview and tips below…

MVG The Favourite

The European Tour returns after the summer break and while most players will have enjoyed some down time we also have five players in the field who have just returned from the World Series events down under. One of those is the 2.25 favourite for the tournament, Michael van Gerwen. Which is better, to have been playing fairly competitive darts for three weeks in Australia and New Zealand with all the travelling that entails, or the stay at home players who have had a bit of a rest?

For the last two years MVG has won the Euro Tour event following the World Series down under but in 2016 he withdrew from the tournament immediately after but won the following week. So it looks like the Green Machine travels well and on the back of two World Series wins in Melbourne and Hamilton his confidence will be back to normal after a poor run of form.

Chizzy Struggles vs MVG

Van Gerwen is the number one seed and has a nice looking 1st quarter draw. The other seeded players in the quarter are Darren Webster, Ricky Evans and Dave Chisnall. Webster and Evans are out of form and Chisnall has a poor record vs. MVG (9-46). I won’t say he has a free ride to a semi-final……..but it is as good a draw he could have hoped for.

He faces the winner of Bunting vs. Kyle Anderson in the second round, two players against whom he has an excellent H2H record. Jeffery De Zwann is a likely 3^rd round opponent if he gets past the out of form Darren Webster. De Zwann has beaten MVG twice in five attempts so that is a tricky one.

From the 2nd quarter, his possible semi-final opponents include Daryl Gurney who has been getting the better of MVG in a few recent meetings, Peter Wright who can give him a game if he is in the mood. Joe Cullen and Jonny Clayton are the other two seeds in that quarter. Certainly the 2^nd quarter looks harder to call than the 1^st quarter. The dangerous non-seeded players in the second quarter include Dimitri van den Bergh. Czech Open winner Jamie Hughes and Luke Humphries.

Austrian Darts Championship Tips: Wright In Top Form

Peter Wright was changing his darts again in the World Series and his resurgence in form which saw him win 20 matches and three titles in a row, seems to have gone. I’ll write that again…. win 20 matches and three titles in a row….and he then changes his darts. That is just nuts. His form down under, played six lost three including an 0-8 towelling by MVG.

Daryl Gurney has a decent draw as he will face the winner of Josh Payne vs. Rowby-John Rodriguez. Rodriguez is bang out of form and Superchin is 8-0 against Payne. His potential 3rd opponents are beatable (he is 3-0 vs. Clayton for example) but his quarter final means running into the best of Wright, Hughes, Humphries and Van den Bergh, so it gets really tough at that point.

The 3rd quarter of the draw features the in-form Ian White, US Masters winner Nathan Aspinall, home favourite and in-form Mensur Suljovic along with veteran Steve Beaton. Another hard to call quarter, very hard. Throw in the non seeded players like Keegan Brown and Ted Evetts and it just gets harder.

Austrian Darts Championship Tip: 4th Quarter Looks Wide Open

The 4th quarter features Adrian Lewis, Michael Smith, Gerwyn Price and Simon Whitlock. Lewis isn’t in great form and the same could be said about Gerwyn Price as both had lost five of their last ten matches before the break. Not only has Whitlock had to do a lot of travelling while playing the World Series, he wasn’t playing well and remains out of form. Michael Smith, while lacking a tournament win in 2019, has won eight of his last ten matches and has reached five finals this year. The fact that he has lost them all is a concern for his backers but he is certainly knocking on a lot of doors.

Of the non-seeded players there are a few that are in eye catching form. Dimitri van den Bergh has slipped off the radar a bit this year but he has won nine of his last ten matches. He lost to Ratajski in the deciding leg of Player’s Championship 21 in Germany before the break and he is regarded as a better stage player than a floor player so perhaps the fact that he is showing decent form away from the stage is a good sign that he is returning to good form. At his best he is world class and capable of winning one of these titles.

Austrian Darts Championship Tips: Evetts On The Up

Ted Evetts is dominating the Development Tour and won two titles in Germany this month so he is match sharp which may not be the case with everyone in the tournament this weekend. He two has won nine of his last ten matches and while they were at a lower level Evetts is a player very much on the up and his first senior title can’t be far away. He up to 26th in the Euro Tour OOM and gaining experience at the top level all the time. A tournament win might be asking too much but he is worth keeping an eye on in the early rounds.

Luke Humphries has been having his problems with anxiety but he has also been showing some good form on the Development Tour, winning eight from ten, and he could be a tricky opponent in the opening round. He has been drawn against Jamie Hughes, the winner of the last Euro Tour tournament in Prague, a tough draw for both.

William O’Connor is a former Euro Tour finalist and had won eight from ten before the break. He has a pro tour title under his belt back in April and reached the World Cup Final for Ireland in June. He has drawn Brendan Dolan who won player’s championship 22 just before the summer break so that is a tough draw for both in-form Irishmen.

Smith looks the pick for the 4th quarter but his tournament odds of 11.00 are short given his record when he does get to a final.

Austrian Darts Championship Tips: Outright selections

Michael van Gerwen has dominated the European Tour for years and picked up 32 titles since 2013. He has won four of the eight he has played in this year and I suspect he will want to get back to winning ways after failing to win his last three ET events. He won two of the three World Series events down under and nine of his last ten matches. Odds against is good enough for me.

 5 points Michael van Gerwen to win @ 2.25 with William Hill

In the bottom half of the draw Mensur Suljovic looks a fair price at 21.00. He hasn’t won a title for 14 months, but he was showing some decent form before the summer break, winning eight of his last ten. He is in the Quarter of Death with Nathan Aspinall and Ian White lurking while his nemesis, Steve Beaton, could await in the third round. However, he has home advantage which might be enough to motivate him to up his game which is already in decent shape.

Austrian Darts Championship Tips: 0.5 point e/w Mensur Suljovic to win @ 21.00 generally available

For a bigger priced outsider who has the talent to cause a surprise we must consider Dimitri van den Bergh. With nine wins from his last ten matches it is hard to fault his form and he is a player with great potential. His draw isn’t easy by any strech but odds of 51.00 are good enough.

 0.5 point e/w Dimitri van den Bergh to win @ 51.00 with William Hill

Individual match bets will be posted on the TXODDS app over the weekend.

-JamesPunt