The 2019 European Darts Open was the first of thirteen PDC European Tour events on the 2019 PDC Pro Tour. The tournament took place at Ostermann-Arena, Leverkusen, Germany, from 22âÂÂ24 March 2019. It featured a field of 48 players and ã140,000 in prize money, with ã25,000 going to the winner.
Michael van Gerwen was the defending champion after defeating Peter Wright 8âÂÂ7 in the final of the 2018 tournament, and he defended his title by defeating Rob Cross 8âÂÂ6 in the final.
In his semi-final win over Mensur SuljoviÃÂ, Van Gerwen became the first player to hit two nine-darters on the European Tour, taking out 147 via T19-Bull-D20, which was also the first time a filmed nine-dart finish included a bullseye, but not as the final dart (as all the previous three were double in/double out nine-darters in the World Grand Prix).
This is how the prize money is divided:
The top 16 entrants from the PDC ProTour Order of Merit on 12 February will automatically qualify for the event and will be seeded in the second round.
The remaining 32 places will go to players from six qualifying events â 18 from the UK Tour Card Holder Qualifier (held on 22 February), six from the European Tour Card Holder Qualifier (held on 22 February), two from the West & South European Associate Member Qualifier (held on 21 March), four from the Host Nation Qualifier (held on 21 March), one from the Nordic & Baltic Qualifier (held on 5 October 2018) and one from the East European Associate Member Qualifier (held on 19 January).
From 2019, the Host Nation, Nordic & Baltic and East European Qualifiers will only be available to non-Tour Card holders. Any Tour Card holders from the applicable regions will have to play the main European Qualifier. The only exceptions being that the Nordic & Baltic qualifiers for the first 3 European Tour events took place in late 2018, before the new ruling was announced, hence why Madars Razma qualified by this method, as under the new rules, he would have had to enter the European Tour Card Holder Qualifier, after regaining his Tour Card at European Q-School in January 2019.
The following players will take part in the tournament: