Aspinall begins European Darts Open title defence against Mansell or Smejda

[p]The 10th European Tour event of the year takes place in Leverkusen from Friday, July 10th to Sunday, July 12th, with 48 players competing for a top prize of £35,000. Dutch pair [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/van-veen-gian/jgT1AT29/"]Gian van Veen[/a] and [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/van-gerwen-michael/SU4UkKsm/"]Michael van Gerwen[/a], ranked one and two in their country, are among those in action.[/p][p]Friday's opening round features 16 matches. Joe Cullen plays Charlie Manby for the right to face five-time European Darts Open champion Van Gerwen in round two. Kevin Doets meets Dominik Gruellich, while William O'Connor takes on Sebastian Bialecki.[/p][p]Niko Springer faces Darius Labanauskas, and Niels Zonneveld plays Daniel Klose. Rob Cross, runner-up at the Slovak Darts Open, takes on Max Hopp, while Daryl Gurney faces Maik Kuivenhoven. Cameron Menzies opens against Jan Schmidt, and Welsh duo Rhys Griffin and Rob Owen face Karel Sedlacek and [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/gilding-andrew/x2eT5hRq/"]Andrew Gilding[/a] respectively.[/p][embed guid="50897e6b-1c62-4837-a07d-46b1513983a2" url="https://x.com/OfficialPDC/status/2075173115483791458" social-type="twitter" /][p]Kim Huybrechts plays European Tour debutant Samuel Price, and Lukas Wenig takes on Bradley Brooks. Dirk van Duijvenbode and Mario Vandenbogaerde meet host nation qualifiers Jaimy van de Weerd and Dragutin Horvat respectively. The day's opening match sees Ryan Joyce play Nordic and Baltic qualifier Mio Varila.[/p][p]The top 16 players on the world rankings enter in round two on Saturday. Top seed Van Veen, the reigning European Champion, faces the winner of Springer v Labanauskas, while last year's runner-up Damon Heta plays the winner of Gilding v Owen.[/p][p][a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/aspinall-nathan/KURJJrU5/"]Aspinall[/a]'s defence begins against the winner of [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/mansell-mickey/YwMlpo1o/"]Mansell[/a] v Smejda. Van Gerwen, chasing a sixth title in Leverkusen, plays the winner of Cullen v Manby. Wessel Nijman, a two-time European Tour winner, faces the winner of Wenig v Brooks, while third seed Jonny Clayton meets the winner of Sedlacek v Griffin.[/p][p]Luke Woodhouse, runner-up at Tuesday's Players Championship event, could meet Vandenbogaerde, while German number one Martin Schindler could face Doets. Ross Smith, the International Darts Open champion, awaits the winner of Zonneveld v Klose, and Mike De Decker plays the winner of Menzies v Schmidt.[/p][p]James Wade could face Gurney, while Stephen Bunting opens against the winner of Joyce v Varila. Danny Noppert faces the winner of O'Connor v Bialecki, and Jermaine Wattimena plays the winner of Huybrechts v Price. Chris Dobey could meet Van Duijvenbode, and Krzysztof Ratajski plays the winner of Cross v Hopp.[/p][p]The last 16 take place on Sunday afternoon, with the quarter-finals, semi-finals and final concluding the tournament in the evening session.[/p][h2][a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/darts/europe/european-tour-10/fixtures/"]Follow the 2026 Elten Safety Shoes European Darts Open with Flashscore[/a][/h2]