Michael Smith and Sebastian Bialecki completed a qualification double in Wigan, as Tour Card Holder Qualifiers took place for European Tour Events 3-4 on Wednesday. Former World Champion Smith won all six of his matches at the Robin Park Leisure Centre to confirm his appearances at both the Belgian Darts Open in March and the […]
Michael Smith and Sebastian Bialecki completed a qualification double in Wigan, as Tour Card Holder Qualifiers took place for European Tour Events 3-4 on Wednesday.
Former World Champion Smith won all six of his matches at the Robin Park Leisure Centre to confirm his appearances at both the Belgian Darts Open in March and the German Darts Grand Prix in April.
The St Helens star began his day with a 6-3 win over Marvin van Velzen, before recording back-to-back 95+ averages to conquer Rob Owen and Ian White to confirm his status in Wieze.
Smith – the 2023 German Darts Grand Prix winner – continued his strong form into the European Tour Event Four qualifier, whitewashing Pascal Rupprecht with a ton-plus average.
The 35-year-old then defeated Jurjen van der Velde 6-2, before seeing off Tom Sykes 6-4 to qualify for the European Tour in Munich and cap off a fantastic day in Wigan.
Bialecki was the only other player to win all six of their matches on Wednesday, as the young Pole confirmed his appearances at European Tour Events 3-4.
The 22-year-old saw off Tavis Dudeney in his opening match of the day, before accounting for number one seed Rob Cross 6-2 with a fantastic 103.30 average.
The Pole then saw past Mickey Mansell 6-3 to ensure his return to Belgium on the European Tour, last appearing in Antwerp at the 2024 Flanders Darts Trophy.
Bialecki’s impressive day continued, defeating Madars Razma before surviving a last-leg decider against Greg Ritchie and dispatching Kai Gotthardt 6-3 to make it a qualification double.
Elsewhere in the race to qualify for the Belgian Darts Open, Sietse Lap will make his European Tour debut after edging past Max Hopp in a last-leg decider, whilst Cristo Reyes qualified for his third-straight European Tour event after defying a 97.40 average from Chris Landman to win 6-4.
Ryan Meikle will also appear in Wieze, as the Suffolk-based star struck a nine-dart leg during his victory over Jeffrey De Zwaan in his second match of the day, before defeating Adam Paxton 6-4.
Thibault Tricole and Adam Gawlas recorded 6-3 victories against Ricky Evans and Stephen Burton respectively to confirm their status in Wieze, whilst Scott Williams, Lukas Wenig and Tyler Thorpe all qualified for the Belgian Darts Open in March.
Later in the day, Kevin Doets secured his place at the German Darts Grand Prix after defeating Karel Sedlacek with a 98-plus average, whilst two-time European Tour winner Kim Huybrechts qualified after beating Jim Long 6-3.
Burton made amends for his last-game defeat in the previous qualifier by winning a last-leg decider against David Sharp to qualify for European Tour Event Four, as English trio Thomas Lovely, Ritchie and James Hurrell all secured their spots in Munich with 6-4 wins in their final match of the day.
Adam Lipscombe and Brendan Dolan rounded out the ten names to qualify for the German Darts Grand Prix, after seeing off Darryl Pilgrim and White respectively.
There was more European Tour disappointment for some of the big names in Wigan, as Cross and Dimitri Van den Bergh failed to qualify for Events 3-4, while Peter Wright lost out in the Event Three Qualifier, having already secured automatic qualification for European Tour Event Four.
White fell short at the final hurdle of both qualifiers, whilst Beau Greaves only entered the second qualifier but lost to Pilgrim 6-1 in her second match.
European Tour events will see 16 seeds from the PDC World Rankings exempt to the last 32 for each tournament, with round one pitting the 16 ProTour qualifiers against the remaining 16 qualifiers.
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ET3 Tour Card Holder Qualifiers: Sebastian Bialecki, Sietse Lap, Thibault Tricole, Tyler Thorpe, Michael Smith, Lukas Wenig, Adam Gawlas, Scott Williams, Ryan Meikle, Cristo Reyes.
ET4 Tour Card Holder Qualifiers: Stephen Burton, Thomas Lovely, Ritchie Edhouse, James Hurrell, Michael Smith, Kevin Doets, Adam Lipscombe, Brendan Dolan, Kim Huybrechts, Sebastian Bialecki
Nine-Darter!
Ryan Meikle hit a nine-darter in the second leg of his round two win against Jeffrey De Zwaan in the ET3 Qualifier.