World Series of Darts Finals 2023 | Day Two Preview and Order of Play
The top eight seeds enter the fray at the 2023 World Series Finals in Amsterdam on Saturday as the Second Round action takes centre stage.
The opening night of the £300,000 invitational saw the qualifiers and invited players collide, with a clutch of big names suffering early exits at the AFAS Live.
The top eight players from the World Series Order of Merit get their campaigns under way on Day Two as they bid to secure a place in Sunday’s Quarter-Finals.
Arguably the pick of the Second Round ties sees reigning World Champion Michael Smith take on five-time World Champion Raymond van Barneveld.
Smith is an ever-present in the World Series Finals and was runner-up to James Wade in 2018, but is now a multiple major title winner having opened his account at last November’s Grand Slam, before fulfilling his darting destiny at Ally Pally in January.
Bully Boy also added the Bahrain Masters title later that month and will be looking to silence the partisan Dutch crowd by denying Barney a memorable triumph on home soil.
Van Barneveld is appearing in his first televised event in the Netherlands since 2019 and opened up with a comfortable 6-2 win over a struggling Jeff Smith despite an average of just 84.5.
His remarkable resurgence at the Grand Slam last year was ended by Smith in the Semi-Finals as the St Helens star averaged 104 in a 16-12 success en route to glory.
Meanwhile, Michael van Gerwen will also look to delight the packed Dutch crowd when he comes up against a confident William O’Connor.
Premier League champion Van Gerwen took an extended break from competitive action following a shock First Round defeat to Brendan Dolan at the World Matchplay and is looking to claim this title for the fifth time.
Van Gerwen has picked up the US Masters and Poland Masters titles on the World Series this term and notably defeated O’Connor 7-4 in the Premier League in Dublin in 2020 when the Irishman featured as a ‘Challenger’.
O’Connor, who came through the recent Tour Card holder qualifier to seal his spot in this event, began by defeating Gabriel Clemens 6-2 on Friday and is now looking to spoil the party against the home favourite.
Gerwyn Price launches the defence of his title with a clash against former World Youth Champion Keegan Brown.
Price has won two of the last three stagings of this event and has reached two finals on the World Series this year – finishing runner-up at the Bahrain Masters and Nordic Masters.
The reigning World Cup champion comes into this event in a rich vein of form, having won Players Championship 21 less than a fortnight ago.
Brown, meanwhile, began with a 6-1 rout of a below-par Simon Whitlock in Round On, having dispatched Luc Peters, Joe Murnan and Danny Jansen in the qualifiers to clinch a third appearance in this competition.
In-form Rob Cross faces a formidable opener against World Cup winner Jonny Clayton to kick off the evening’s action.
Cross enjoyed a sensational trip Down Under last month, claiming back-to-back World Series titles in Wollongong and Hamilton and is therefore seeded number one here.
World Matchplay finalist Clayton, who pulled out of the double-header in Australia and New Zealand for family reasons, overcame Martin Schindler 6-3 in his opener last night.
World number six Luke Humphries opens up with a tricky tie against in-form Krzysztof Ratajski.
Humphries, semi-finalist in July’s World Matchplay and a five-time European Tour event winner, is making his debut in this event as the number eight seed.
He faces a player in a rich vein of form, fresh from landing the German Darts Open title last weekend and seeing off recent ProTour finalist Daniel Klose in Round One.
World Matchplay champion Nathan Aspinall and former UK Open champion Danny Noppert gear up for yet another big stage meeting in 2023.
The pair have faced off five times this season, with Aspinall winning their three most recent encounters, most notably an 11-9 success in the Last 16 of the World Matchplay.
Noppert was the stand-out performer of the opening round, defeating Dutch compatriot Dirk van Duijvenbode 6-4 with a 104.8 average.
Two-time World Champion Peter Wright starts out against New Zealand ace Haupai Puha.
Wright was runner-up in this event in 2015 and 2016 and has a World Series title to his name this season thanks to his exploits at the Nordic Masters back in January.
Puha is no stranger to a big-name scalp in front of the TV cameras, having beaten the likes of Jonny Clayton and Dimitri van den Bergh in the World Series, and battled his way past debutant Graham Usher in Round One.
The final match of the night sees fifth seed Van den Bergh take on qualifier Ricky Evans.
Van den Bergh was runner-up here in 2021 and reached the final of this year’s Poland Masters, losing out to Van Gerwen in the final.
Evans held his nerve to edge out world number 12 Damon Heta in a deciding leg on Friday and is now looking to reach what would be only a second televised Quarter-Final.
The action gets under way from 6pm BST, with Second Round matches to be contested over the best of 11 legs.
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World Series of Darts Finals 2023 Day Two Schedule
Saturday September 16
Second Round
6pm-10pm
Rob Cross v Jonny Clayton
Luke Humphries v Krzysztof Ratajski
Gerwyn Price v Keegan Brown
Michael van Gerwen v William O’Connor
Michael Smith v Raymond van Barneveld
Nathan Aspinall v Danny Noppert
Peter Wright v Haupai Puha
Dimitri Van den Bergh v Ricky Evans
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