Darts' biggest stars head to Prague for European Tour showdown
Last year's victory at the Czech Darts Open will be defended by Englishman Luke Humphries, but in Letnany he will have huge competition in the form of three-time world champion Michael van Gerwen or two-time champion Peter Wright.
Jamie Hughes triumphed at the PVA Letnany in Prague in 2019, beating Stephen Bunting 8-3 in the final. The return of darts to the crowded arenas was then delayed until 2022 due to the COVID pandemic. The second Prague edition was won by Humphries at the Kralovka after the final battle (8-5) with former world champion Rob Cross.
Tournament format
The traditional European Tour tournament features 48 players, with the last two spots in the main event being contested during Thursday's national qualifying day. Round one matches are then scheduled for Friday, with the top 16 darters being directly seeded into round two. Saturday will offer the battles for the Eight Finals, while on Sunday afternoon the quarter-finalists will be known and the final rounds will be played during the evening session.
The tournament will culminate in the late evening, with the finals estimated to start at 22:00 CET. "All matches up to the quarter-final level are played to six winning legs, the semi-finals to seven and the final is a best of 15 format, eg to eight winning legs," explains tournament promoter Pavel Korda.
Tournament draw
Last year's defending champion Humphries is seeded directly into the second round, but he may face reigning European champion Ross Smith. Wright is not an easy draw either, as he faces the winner of the Jelle Klaasen - Brendan Dolan duel.
The two best Czech hopes are at the top of the leaderboard. If Adam Gawlas manages to advance past Latvian Madars Razma, the 2018 world champion Cross awaits him.
Karel Sedlacek will face Dutch qualifier Jeffrey Sparidaans on Friday night. "He is a very well-known and tough opponent, but I believe that the home crowd will make me so excited that I will beat him," the Czech darts player revealed to Flashscore.
Although reigning world champion Michael Smith excused himself from the Prague event at the last minute, the starting list is packed with stars.
Eight of the top 10 players in the PDC World Rankings will play in Letnany. Apart from 'Bullyboy', world number four Gerwyn Price is also missing.
Nine-dart finish in Prague
It was the Welshman who gave the spectators a real darts experience in Prague in 2019 when he completed a nine-darter in a duel with Glen Durrant. In the history of the European Tour, a nine-dart finish has only happened 13 times so far. Van Gerwen has done it twice as has Dave Chisnall. Both will start this weekend in Prague.
The biggest stars
Michael van Gerwen
The Dutch phantom has been world champion three times. Between 2014 and 2021 he was continuously the world's number one darts player. He is coming to Prague for the third time. In his first participation he finished off his first opponent, last year he was knocked out in the quarter finals by the future winner Humphries.
Peter Wright
An iconic figure and the 2020 and 2022 World Champion. He calls himself Snakebite and traditionally performs with an extravagant hairstyle prepared by his wife Jo. This Scottish darts player has yet to win a single match in Prague. In 2019, he dropped out as a seeded player in the second round with Stephen Bunting, and last year he missed out at the Royal.
Luke Humphries
Humphries is one of the emerging generation of players who grew up on the PDC Development Tour series. It was there that he won a total of 11 titles and was its overall champion in 2017. In 2019, he became a junior world champion. He managed to win the European Tour tournament in Prague last May.
Prize money
Prague is one of the stops on the 13-part European Tour series, which distributes £175,000 to players. The winner will take home £30,000 of the total prize money.
