The Slovak Darts Open has stopped looking like a routine European Tour weekend and started to look like one of those brackets where every surviving seed has a problem waiting around the corner.
Gerwyn Price, Gian van Veen and Jonny Clayton are all gone before Sunday, while Cameron Menzies, Rob Cross and Ryan Joyce have forced the inaugural Bratislava event into a much sharper shape. That is the story now: not just a list of upsets, but a Sunday schedule where form, ranking and reputation are suddenly under pressure.
Menzies And Cross Have Changed The Weight Of The Draw
Sky Sports’ running schedule shows the scale of Saturday evening’s damage. Price lost 6-2 to Menzies, Van Veen went down 6-3 to Cross, and Clayton was beaten 6-5 by Joyce. Those are not small movements in the draw. They remove three of the names who would naturally have been expected to shape finals day.
For Menzies, the 6-2 win over Price is the result with the loudest immediate noise. It puts him into a third-round meeting with Tom Sykes and gives him a genuine route to a deep European Tour run. NineDartNews has already covered the straight news of Price, Van Veen and Clayton being knocked out, but the wider consequence is that the draw now has more volatility than hierarchy.
Cross beating Van Veen matters for a different reason. Van Veen arrived as one of the event’s leading names, yet Cross now has Kevin Doets next and a chance to turn one statement win into a full Sunday charge.
Van Gerwen And Bunting Survived, But Only Just
Michael van Gerwen and Stephen Bunting are still alive, but neither result was comfortable. Van Gerwen edged Krzysztof Ratajski 6-5, while Bunting beat Niels Zonneveld by the same scoreline. Ross Smith also needed a deciding leg against Joe Cullen.
That creates a very different Sunday rhythm. Van Gerwen faces Andrew Gilding next, and NineDartNews has already noted how that Gilding tie gives MVG another awkward assignment. The Dutchman is still the biggest name left in Bratislava, but the narrow escape against Ratajski should stop anyone treating his route as clean.
Bunting’s position is similar. He is through, but Wessel Nijman is waiting after a 6-2 win over Benjamin Pratnemer. That is exactly the kind of match where a player can look secure on paper and still find himself dragged into a scoring fight.
Sunday Is Now About Who Handles The Broken Bracket
The most revealing part of this event may come before the final. Rob Cross vs Kevin Doets, Ryan Searle vs Nathan Aspinall, Menzies vs Sykes, Van Gerwen vs Gilding and Bunting vs Nijman all have different kinds of pressure attached.
Some players are trying to justify favourite status. Some are trying to back up a shock. Others are trying to turn survival into momentum. That mixture is what gives finals day its edge.
It also creates a useful measure of the wider European Tour field. The players who thrive on Sunday will not just need bigger scoring bursts; they will need to reset quickly between sessions, handle a changing stage atmosphere and avoid treating Saturday’s shocks as permission to relax. That is where the event can become more revealing than a standard ranking weekend.
The Slovak Darts Open was already notable because the European Tour had arrived in Bratislava for the first time. Now it has a sporting identity too: dangerous, unsettled and full of players who have already proved they can puncture the expected script.
As Sky Sports’ Slovak Darts Open schedule and results show, Sunday starts with eight third-round matches before the quarter-finals, semi-finals and final. After Saturday’s carnage, that is not just a timetable. It is a stress test.
The latest Slovak Darts Open updates are available from the PDC’s official channels throughout finals day.
— PDC Darts (@OfficialPDC) June 20, 2026
