Dirk van Duijvenbode will meet reigning champion Luke Humphries in round two of the\u00a0Czech Darts Open after battling past Cor Dekker in Prague.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Van Duijvenbode fought off a fightback from Norway’s Dekker, running out a 6-4 winner having led 4-0, to set up a clash with Humphries on Saturday at the PVA Expo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Dutchman was one of 16 players to set up round two ties against the 16 seeded players as the European Tour event kicked off in the Czech capital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
World Champion Luke Littler will face Cameron Menzies after the Scot saw off Ian White 6-3 with a 100.91 average.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I’m buzzing to play, in my opinion, the best darts player in the world,” said Menzies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I’m a massive fan of Luke Humphries but I feel Littler right now is the man.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“To play him up here on this stage tomorrow will be an experience and I’m looking forward to it.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nathan Aspinall made a winning return to PDC action, whitewashing Czech qualifier Jiri Brejcha 6-0 to set up a meeting with world number five James Wade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“It felt good to be back up here after not playing for a while,” reflected Aspinall, who last featured in July’s World Matchplay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“The rhythm was awful, my throw was terrible; I could tell I hadn’t played darts for seven weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I need to be better tomorrow, otherwise I’ll get hammered by James.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
World number three Michael van Gerwen will take on Mike De Decker, who averaged 100.9 in a 6-3 win over European Champion Ritchie Edhouse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“This week I changed back to my old set up and everything feels more comfortable,” said World Grand Prix champion De Decker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“We all know what Michael’s been through this year, I get along with him very well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“We will see tomorrow, if the best version of Michael turns up I’m in for a tough task.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2023 Czech Darts Open winner Peter Wright will begin his campaign against Benjamin Pratnemer, after the Slovenian took the scalp of German number two Ricardo Pietreczko.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Krzysztof Ratajski thrashed Raymond van Barneveld 6-1 to cement his place among the provisional qualifiers for October’s World Grand Prix, while William O’Connor boosted his qualification hopes with a 6-5 win over Luke Woodhouse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Results<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Round One: <\/strong>Benjamin Pratnemer 6-4\u00a0Ricardo Pietreczko; Madars Razma 6-3 Lukas Unger; Andrew Gilding 6-5 Darius Labanauskas; Cameron Menzies 6-3 Ian White; Jermaine Wattimena 6-4 Brendan Dolan; Ryan Joyce 6-3 Karel Sedlacek; William O’Connor 6-5 Luke Woodhouse; Wessel Nijman 6-5 Richard Veenstra; Dirk van Duijvenbode 6-4 Cor Dekker; Ryan Searle 6-2 Filip Manak; Kevin Doets 6-4\u00a0Daryl Gurney; Gian van Veen 6-3 Maik Kuivenhoven; Krzysztof Ratajski 6-1\u00a0Raymond van Barneveld; Nathan Aspinall 6-0 Jiri Brejcha; Mike De Decker 6-3 Ritchie Edhouse; Niko Springer 6-5\u00a0Joe Cullen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Dirk van Duijvenbode will meet reigning champion Luke Humphries in round two of the\u00a0Czech Darts Open after battling<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2929,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[44,7],"tags":[59],"class_list":["post-2928","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","category-newsbeat","tag-darts"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t