After more than six months, darts fans were back when the gates of the Salzburgarena opened on Friday evening for the bwin World Series of Darts Finals. On March 12, 2020 the Premier League night in Liverpool was last played in front of fans.

Some of the favourites were struggling in the first round. For example, the world No. 10 Dave Chisnall who was defeated by Cody Harris from New Zealand. Local hero Mensur Suljovic was not able to overcome Krzysztof Ratajski from Poland. Glen Durrant won the top match of the day against Dimitri Van den Bergh.
Here are the complete results of the 1st round:

2020 bwin World Series of Darts Finals 2020, Friday, 1st round
Harry Ward 2:6 Darius Labanauskas
Ian White 5:6 Damon Heta
Cody Harris 6:2 Dave Chisnall
Vincent van der Voort 6:0 Joe Cullen
Jeff Smith 6:5 Fallon Sherrock
Krzysztof Ratajski 6:3 Mensur Suljovic
Glen Durrant 6:3 Dimitri Van den Bergh
Simon Whitlock 5:6 Steve Beaton

This results in the following pairings for tomorrow’s second round:

bwin World Series of Darts Finals, Saturday, 2nd round
Michael van Gerwen – Glen Durrant
James Wade – Jeff Smith
Michael Smith – Krzysztof Ratasjski
Rob Cross – Steve Beaton
Peter Wright – Damon Heta
Daryl Gurney – Cody Harris
Gerwyn Price – Vincent van der Voort
Nathan Aspinall – Darius Labanauskas