World Series of Darts Finals 2023 | Day One Preview and Order of Play
The 2023 World Series of Darts Finals commence in Amsterdam on Friday as the invited players and qualifiers collide in Round One.
The non-ranking tournament takes place at the AFAS Live from September 15-17 as 24 players compete for £300,000 in prize money.
The top eight players on the World Series Order of Merit are seeded through to Saturday’s Second Round and will await the winner of one of Friday’s opening matches.
A clutch of decorated darters feature on opening night, including three Dutchmen and a further four televised title winners.
The stand-out tie of the First Round sees home favourites and World Cup team-mates Dirk van Duijvenbode and Danny Noppert do battle.
In the absence of Michael van Gerwen, the pair suffered a disappointing Second Round defeat to Belgium in this year’s World Cup but have performed strongly on an individual basis.
Van Duijvenbode has claimed three Players Championship titles and has reached two European Tour finals – suffering agonising last-leg defeats in both.
Van Duijvenbode was also runner-up in last year’s World Series Finals, losing out to Gerwyn Price in another nail-biting decider.
Noppert, meanwhile, reached the final of the 2019 World Series Finals, where he was thrashed 11-2 by Van Gerwen, and has also picked up a Players Championship title this season.
Raymond van Barneveld is set for a roof-raising reception on home soil when he steps out to face Canadian ace Jeff Smith.
Five-time World Champion van Barneveld is making his first appearance in this event since 2019 as one of the eight invited players in the field.
Semi-finalist in last year’s Grand Slam, Van Barneveld secured a return to the World Matchplay earlier this summer and has climbed back into the world’s top 32.
Smith enjoyed a sensational run to the final of the US Masters in New York in June but was ultimately whitewashed 8-0 by a ruthless Van Gerwen.
The 2016 Lakeside finalist is battling to save his Tour Card come the end of the season and will look to silence the partisan home crowd by setting up a meeting with Michael Smith.
Elsewhere, world number 12 Damon Heta has been drawn to face resurgent qualifier Ricky Evans.
Heta has two Players Championship titles to his name this season and was a quarter-finalist at the recent World Matchplay, while Evans defeated Ross Smith, Jacques Labre and Jeffrey Sparidaans in the recent Tour Card holder qualifier to secure his second appearance in this event.
World number seven Jonny Clayton starts out against German number two Martin Schindler.
Clayton claimed World Cup glory alongside Price for Wales in June, while Schindler was part of the German team which reached the Semi-Finals on home soil.
Clayton also landed the Austrian Open title to end his Euro Tour drought, having also won a Players Championship event in May.
Schindler enjoyed a fine run to the Quarter-Finals of the UK Open in March and defeated the Dutch trio of Jurjen van der Velde, Martijn Kleermaker and Gian van Veen to seal his place in this event.
Former European Champion Simon Whitlock kicks off with a clash against former World Youth Champion Keegan Brown.
Whitlock featured in the New Zealand Masters and New South Wales Masters last month, notably defeating Nathan Aspinall 6-5 en route to the Quarter-Finals in Wollongong.
Brown, meanwhile, was a Players Championship event winner last year and saw off Luc Peters, Joe Murnan and Danny Jansen in the qualifiers to clinch a third appearance in this competition.
Two in-form darters collide in the opening match of the tournament as Krzysztof Ratajski faces Daniel Klose.
Polish number one Ratajski romped to the German Darts Open title in Jena last weekend and will be determined to pick up from where he left off.
Klose enjoyed a fabulous run to the final of Players Championship 21 less than a fortnight ago, narrowly going down 8-6 to Price in the final, before backing that up with wins over Mike De Decker and Richie Burnett in the qualifiers to earn a TV debut.
Meanwhile, German number one Gabriel Clemens comes up against Republic of Ireland star William O’Connor.
Clemens enjoyed a ground-breaking run to the Semi-Finals of the World Championship at the beginning of the year and was runner-up in Players Championship 3 a month later.
Former World Cup finalist O’Connor reached the Semi-Finals of the UK Open and the final of the Hungarian Trophy last season and had to navigate his way through four matches in the qualifiers to reach the World Series Finals, defeating the likes of Nathan Rafferty and Richard Veenstra along the way.
World number 110 Graham Usher will be looking to seize a rare opportunity in front of the TV cameras when he meets New Zealand’s Haupai Puha.
Usher secured his Tour Card at Qualifying School in January and pulled off wins over the likes of Ronny Huybrechts and Danny van Trijp in last week’s qualifiers.
Puha thrilled his home crowd in Hamilton by defeating Dimitri van den Bergh last month and makes the long trip to Germany for his second successive appearance in the World Series Finals.
The action gets under way from 6pm BST, with First Round matches to be contested over the best of 11 legs.
WATCH THE WORLD SERIES FINALS STREAMED LIVE
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World Series of Darts Finals 2023 Day One Schedule
All times BST (local time +1 hour)
Friday September 15
First Round
6pm-10pm
Daniel Klose v Krzysztof Ratajski
Graham Usher v Haupai Puha
Gabriel Clemens v William O’Connor
Keegan Brown v Simon Whitlock
Jonny Clayton v Martin Schindler
Raymond van Barneveld v Jeff Smith
Dirk van Duijvenbode v Danny Noppert
Damon Heta v Ricky Evans
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