Swiss Darts Trophy 2024 Day Three Preview and Order of Play | Last 16 do battle in Basel
The Swiss Darts Trophy draws to a close in Basel on Sunday as the 16 remaining players aim to be crowned the inaugural champion.
A £30,000 top prize is on offer at St. Jakobshalle as nine seeds and seven qualifiers go head-to-head across two sessions.
The afternoon session, commencing at the earlier time of 11am BST, plays host to the Third Round ties, before the Quarter-Finals, Semi-Finals and final follow in the evening from 5pm.
Undoubtedly the pick of the Last 16 action features a repeat of the World Championship and Premier League final between Luke Humphries and Luke Littler.
The tone was set for an historic new rivalry when Humphries denied the teenager glory at Ally Pally to claim his maiden world title back in January, but Littler hit back by clinching the sport’s most prestigious invitational title at The O2 in May.
The pair have since met on multiple occasions on the ProTour, World Series and European Tour, and will do battle in Basel after contrasting opening performances.
Humphries averaged 100.7 in coasting past Richard Veenstra 6-2 on Saturday, while Littler – using his new darts for the first time in a competitive match – recovered from a slow start to defeat Host Nation qualifier Bruno Stöckli 6-3 with a 93.5 average.
Awaiting the winner of that showdown in the quarter-finals is either former World Champion Rob Cross or current Dutch Darts Champion Josh Rock.
Cross claimed the Baltic Sea Darts Open title in May and was also runner-up in the Belgian Open, and ‘Voltage’ will be out to avenge his 6-4 defeat at the hands of Rock in last week’s Hungarian Darts Trophy.
Another unmissable encounter sees Ross Smith – twice a European Tour finalist this year – take on five-time World Champion Raymond van Barneveld.
The pair met in the Second Round in Budapest last weekend, with Smith prevailing 6-2 en route to the semi-finals.
Second seed Smith saw off Mike De Decker 6-4 in his opener on Saturday, while Barney averaged 102.5 in a 6-2 rout of Joe Cullen in Round One before battling past a resilient Ricardo Pietreczko in a deciding leg.
Wessel Nijman, Callan Rydz and Madars Razma are the only players who can overthrow Luke Woodhouse in the final ProTour qualification spot for the World Grand Prix, but must win the title in Basel in order to do so.
After whitewashing Woodhouse in Round One, Nijman produced a stunning 11-darter in the deciding leg to edge out Chris Dobey, and he now faces ten-time major winner James Wade – who dumped out Gerwyn Price 6-4 with a 98.8 average in Round Two.
Rydz followed up his 6-1 rout of Brendan Dolan with a 6-4 triumph over 12th seed Gian van Veen on Saturday, and he now comes up against ProTour event finalist Cameron Menzies – who has already accounted for Jonny Clayton and Danny Noppert this weekend.
Razma, who survived three match darts from Damon Heta in Round Two, faces another tough assignment against ninth seed Ryan Searle – who has never made it beyond the semi-finals of a European Tour event.
Meanwhile, Masters champion Stephen Bunting takes on International Open champion Martin Schindler for the second successive weekend.
Bunting was on the receiving end of two nine-darters in Budapest, the second of which coming from Schindler, but he defied perfection to prevail 6-4 at the same stage of the competition.
Two former major winners also collide as Nathan Aspinall faces Daryl Gurney in the final match of the afternoon.
Aspinall pulled off a crucial win over top seed Dave Chisnall to move into the provisional qualification places for next month’s European Championship, and he will look to consolidate that position by seeing off Superchin.
Gurney, semi-finalist in the German Championship earlier this month, safely dispatched Karel Sedlacek 6-2 in his opener and faces ‘The Asp’ for the first time since his 10-9 defeat at The Masters in February.
The action gets under way from 11am BST, with Third Round and Quarter-Final ties to be contested over the best of 11 legs, Semi-Finals best of 13 and the final best of 15.
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Swiss Darts Trophy 2024 Day Three Schedule
All times BST (local time +1 hour)
Sunday September 29
Afternoon Session (11am-3pm)
Last 16
Josh Rock v Rob Cross
Luke Humphries v Luke Littler
Stephen Bunting v Martin Schindler
Ross Smith v Raymond van Barneveld
Cameron Menzies v Callan Rydz
James Wade v Wessel Nijman
Madars Razma v Ryan Searle
Nathan Aspinall v Daryl Gurney
Evening Session (5pm-9pm)
Quarter-Finals
Rock/Cross v Humphries/Littler
Bunting/Schindler v R Smith/Van Barneveld
Rydz/Menzies v Nijman/Wade
Searle/Razma v Gurney/Aspinall
Semi-Finals
Final
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