Michael van Gerwen and Rob Cross are on course to lock horns for the third time when the European Tour comes to Leverkusen for the first time this weekend.
The European Darts Open, the eighth event on the European Tour this year, gets underway at the Smidt-Arena in Leverkusen on Friday, with world number 51 Cross a seed for the first time.
Last year’s Challenge Tour Order of Merit winner has made an impressive start to life on the main circuit in 2017, winning two Players Championship events and reaching three quarter-finals on the European Tour, and he takes up the 16th seed position for this weekend.
World number one van Gerwen is of course the top seed, and if the duo both get through their first matches on Saturday they are due to face each other in the last 16 on Sunday afternoon.
The pair have only met twice before with van Gerwen winning on each occasion, but both encounters have been memorable. The first of those was in last year’s UK Open, with Cross then a Riley’s Amateur Qualifier and it took a nine-dart finish and two 170 checkouts for van Gerwen to get the better of him.
The second meeting took place recently in a Players Championship event in April, with van Gerwen edging out Cross in a last-leg decider to progress. Could the duo be about to go head-to-head for the third time this weekend?
European Darts Open
June 30-July 2 Smidt-Arena, Leverkusen
Seeded players
1. Michael van Gerwen
2. Peter Wright
3. Mensur Suljovic
4. Simon Whitlock
5. Michael Smith
6. Kim Huybrechts
7. Benito van de Pas
8. Jelle Klaasen
9. Ian White
10. Dave Chisnall
11. Alan Norris
12. Daryl Gurney
13. Gerwyn Price
14. Joe Cullen
15. Stephen Bunting
16. Rob Cross
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