Raymond van Barneveld sealed his return to the Betfred World Matchplay for the first time in five years with victory on the opening day of the Interwetten European Darts Matchplay in Trier on Friday.
Van Barneveld claimed a 6-3 victory over George Killington in the first round of the European Tour event, which was enough to book his return to Blackpool’s iconic Winter Gardens in July.
The 2010 World Matchplay runner-up will now face old rival Michael van Gerwen in a mouth-watering second round clash between the two Dutch giants on Saturday night.
“This was a vital win for me in my quest to qualify for the big TV events later this year,” said Van Barneveld, who returned to the professional circuit in 2021.
“I want to qualify for the World Matchplay, the World Grand Prix, the European Championship, so this is one of my goals achieved for this year.
“I will have to play much better to do anything against Michael in the next round, I will need to put a few points on my average.”
“The game is there; in practice I was hitting 180s and 140s but on stage I hit too may 60s, so that’s something I need to sort out for tomorrow.”
The 16 seeded players enter the tournament in Saturday’s second round, with World Champion Smith, world number three Van Gerwen and top seed Luke Humphries amongst the top stars in action.
The tournament is being broadcast live on Viaplay, DAZN and PDCTV (excluding Germany, Austria and Switzerland) and through bookmakers’ websites worldwide.
Click here for results & match stats.
2023 Interwetten European Darts Matchplay
Friday June 30
First Round
Afternoon Session (1300 local time, 1200 BST)
Ryan Joyce 6-1 Ted Evetts
Vitezslav Sedlak 6-3 Daniel Klose
Gian van Veen 6-3 Christian Kist
Martin Lukeman 6-4 Graham Hall
Brendan Dolan 6-2 Connor Scutt
Andrew Gilding 6-4 Darryl Pilgrim
Mickey Mansell 6-3 Matt Campbell
Callan Rydz 6-3 Stephen Burton
Evening Session (1900 local time, 1800 BST)
Marko Kantele 6-2 Liam Maendl-Lawrance
Ricardo Pietreczko 6-0 Fabian Herz
Keane Barry 6-2 Kim Huybrechts
James Wade 6-1 William O’Connor
Raymond van Barneveld 6-3 George Killington
Gabriel Clemens 6-3 Jose de Sousa
James Wilson 6-2 Simon Whitlock
Stephen Bunting 6-3 Luke Woodhouse
Saturday July 1
Second Round
Afternoon Session (1300 local time, 1200 BST)
Dave Chisnall v Ryan Joyce
Josh Rock v Brendan Dolan
Rob Cross v Mickey Mansell
Damon Heta v Gian van Veen
Nathan Aspinall v Martin Lukeman
Dirk van Duijvenbode v Andrew Gilding
Joe Cullen v Vitezslav Sedlak
Ross Smith v Luke Woodhouse
Evening Session (1900 local time, 1800 BST)
Jonny Clayton v James Wade
Dimitri Van den Bergh v Ricardo Pietreczko
Ryan Searle v Gabriel Clemens
Michael van Gerwen v Raymond van Barneveld
Michael Smith v Keane Barry
Luke Humphries v Marko Kantele
Martin Schindler v Callan Rydz
Danny Noppert v James Wilson
—–Ends——
Images: Jonas Hunold / PDC Europe
