2020 UK Open Draw confirmed as Sherrock takes on McKinstry

The draw for the 2020 UK Open, also known as the 'FA Cup of Darts', was confirmed on February the 4th by the PDC following a packed weekend of darts on the 22nd and 23rd of the month at the Players' Championship non-televised events. Aside from the clash between Fallon Sherrock and Kyle McKinstry that we previously eluded to, other stand out matches of the first round include Damon Heta taking on Scott Waites and Mike de Decker against Lisa Ashton.

While the vast majority of games are non-televised and played on stages two to eight, some of the early round games are on the main stage and this year, the televised games are the three clashes we referred to earlier in Round One. Round Two includes Scott Baker versus Mark McGeeney and Jeff Smith versus John Michael and big names in Round Three on the stage include Luke Humphries, Kim Huybrechts, and Luke Woodhouse.

The 'Dutch Giant' Martijn Kleermaker will take on X in Round One.

The 160 qualifiers for the largest field of all major tournaments in the sport include all 128 PDC tour card holders, eight challenge tour players, eight development tour players and sixteen amateur qualifiers from all over the nation. One of the 128 tour card holders, Boris Krčmar, has pulled out of the event, however, meaning the development tour's ninth-ranked player, Ben Cheeseman, takes his place.

The second major tournament of the year will see a packed schedule. The first day of action, on Friday the 6th of March, will see the first four rounds completed, with eight boards being used to fit in all the games. Saturday's games will comprise of rounds five and six, with the semi-finals and final hosted in Minehead, Somerset, on Sunday the 8th of March.

World number 26 Danny 'Noppie' Noppert from the Netherlands will enter in Round Four.

Players ranked 97 to 128 on the PDC rankings from the tour cardholders will enter in Round One, which is mostly new PDC players who have only had a month or so to gain rankings money, while they are joined by the challenge tour, development tour, and amateur qualifiers. Round Two will see players ranked 65 to 96 enter, which are the lower-ranked PDC players from last year and the players who have started well of the new entrants to the system. Round Three introduces seeds 33-64 while the top 32 enter in Round Four, much like the FA Cup football draw system. Each round from round three is drawn completely randomly on the stage.

The format will begin with the best of 11 leg matches in rounds one, two and three before shooting up to best of 19 legs when the top 32 players enter in round four. This format remains until the grand final, which will see two top players battle it out over a maximum of 21 legs.

The 2020 UK Open begins on March 6th and will be televised in the UK on ITV4.