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European Darts Matchplay 2019 Day Two preview and order of play: Top 16 seeds enter the fray

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European Darts Matchplay 2019 Day Three preview and order of play: Last 16 collide in Mannheim

Jamie Shaw in PDC Darts News 08 Sep 2019

Suljovic celebrates against Van Gerwen (credit:Lawrence Lustig/PDC)

The eleventh European Tour event of the season draws to a close in Mannheim on Sunday as the 16 remaining players compete for the £25,000 title.

Unlike recent Euro Tour events, the vast majority of seeded players have safely progressed to the final day of action, with 14 of the 16 seeds making it through on Saturday.

Peter Wright and Nathan Aspinall were the big names to bite the dust, leaving the door ajar for two in-form outsiders to make their move.

The pick of the afternoon’s Third Round ties features a repeat of last week’s Austrian Championship final as Mensur Suljovic looks to do the double over top seed Michael van Gerwen.

Suljovic secured a stunning last-leg victory to take the title on home soil in Vienna and seemingly picked up from where he left off by thrashing Kim Huybrechts 6-1 with a 102 average on Saturday.

Suljovic will be wary of a potential backlash from the reigning World Champion – who is bidding for a fifth Euro Tour title of 2019 and began by brushing aside world finalist Michael Smith 6-2 in his opener.

Elsewhere, Gerwyn Price looks to make it a hat-trick of wins over Glen Durrant on the European Tour this season when the pair collide in the final match of the afternoon.

Welsh star Price celebrates (Photo by Lawrence Lustig/PDC)

Price prevailed 6-3 and 6-4 in the Dutch Masters and Czech Open respectively and set his stall out in style this week by defeating Simon Stevenson 6-3 with a 102 average in Round Two.

Durrant overcame New Zealand’s Cody Harris by the same scoreline, averaging nine points less than Price, and is looking to reach the Quarter-Finals of a Euro Tour event for only the second time.

William O’Connor, last year’s beaten finalist, looks to continue his love affair with the European Matchplay by seeing off eleventh seed Joe Cullen.

World Cup of Darts finalist O’Connor has already knocked out Max Hopp and Peter Wright in last-leg deciders en route to this stage and is now aiming to further bolster his hopes of qualifying for next month’s European Championship.

Cullen swept aside Jamie Hughes 6-3 in his opener and is out to make it four wins from five over the Irishman and reach his third Euro Tour Quarter-Final of the campaign.

Premier League stars Rob Cross and Daryl Gurney meet for the eighth time in PDC competition this year as ‘Superchin’ looks to improve on a run of four defeats in their last five encounters.

Cross, who completed an epic comeback in their World Matchplay Semi-Final, whitewashed debutant qualifier Marvin Wehder in Round Two, while Gurney overcame John Henderson 6-4.

Two-time World Champion Adrian Lewis aims to record a first win over Krzysztof Ratajski at the fourth attempt when he clashes with the unflappable Polish star in another Last 16 match to savour.

Danish Open champion Dave Chisnall faces two-time European Tour finalist Ricky Evans, while reigning European Champion James Wade takes on Wayne Jones – a player enjoying his best run on the European Tour since April 2018.

Ian White steps up his pursuit of a third European Tour title of the season when he faces former Austrian Open winner Jonny Clayton – who has won five of their seven previous meetings.

The action gets underway from midday, with Last 16 and Quarter-Final matches to be contested over the best of 11 legs, Semi-Finals best of 13 and the final best of 15.

WATCH THE EUROPEAN DARTS MATCHPLAY STREAMED LIVE HERE