European Tour Returns With Maastricht Debut

Michael van Gerwen (Lawrence Lustig, PDC)

FOLLOWING the World Series of Darts treble-header during August, the focus now returns to the PDC European Tour ahead of the Dutch Darts Masters in Maastricht.

The first of three European Tour events to be held in September sees 48 players competing from September 1-3 at the MECC as Maastricht hosts top-level darts for the first time.

World Champion and Dutch superstar Michael van Gerwen heads the field of competitors as he makes his return to action following a month's break as he celebrated the birth of his first child.

Van Gerwen's Dutchmen Benito van de Pas and Jelle Klaasen are also seeded for the £135,000 tournament.

A further four Dutch players will secure spots in the tournament at Thursday's Host Nation Qualifier, with a further eight places also available in the European Qualifier.

Peter Wright, Simon Whitlock, Michael Smith, Daryl Gurney and Kyle Anderson will all compete in the Dutch Darts Masters following their return from the World Series of Darts events in New Zealand and Australia.

Finland's Ulf Ceder will make his debut after winning through the PDCNB Qualifier in Norway in May, while Poland's Krzysztof Ratajski came through last weekend's Eastern European Qualifier in Budapest.

Former European Tour event winners Steve Beaton and Justin Pipe were amongst the 18 UK Qualifiers, alongside former finalists John Henderson and Jamie Lewis and former World Championship qualifier Kirk Shepherd.

Friday's first round will see the 32 qualifiers face off across two sessions in Maastricht, before the 16 seeded players enter the action in Saturday's second round.

Sunday then sees the third round in the afternoon session ahead of the evening's climax with the quarter-finals, semi-finals and final.

Tickets for the Dutch Darts Masters are available through www.pdc-europe.tv.

The Dutch Darts Masters will be broadcast in full at PDCTV-HD throughout the weekend, with live coverage also available through a series of bookmakers' websites worldwide.

2017 Dutch Darts Masters (ET9)
September 1-3, MECC Maastricht
Seeded Players (Enter at Second Round stage)

1 Michael van Gerwen
2 Peter Wright
3 Mensur Suljovic
4 Simon Whitlock
5 Michael Smith
6 Ian White
7 Kim Huybrechts
8 Benito van de Pas
9 Daryl Gurney
10 Jelle Klaasen
11 Alan Norris
12 Joe Cullen
13 Cristo Reyes
14 Gerwyn Price
15 Rob Cross
16 Mervyn King

Qualifiers
UK Qualifiers (x18):
Nathan Aspinall, Steve Beaton, James Wilson, Steve West, Kyle Anderson, Jim Walker, Darren Webster, John Henderson, Kirk Shepherd, Harry Robinson, Justin Pipe, Chris Quantock, Jamie Bain, Ryan Searle, Jamie Lewis, Robert Owen, Steve Lennon, Richard North
European Qualifiers (x8): TBC August 31
Host Nation Qualifiers (x4): TBC August 31
PDCNB Qualifier: Ulf Ceder
East Europe Qualifier: Krzysztof Ratajski