THE first darting major of the 2025 darting season is underway, with the first round finishing with a bang tonight.
The bottom half of the bracket commenses tonight, James Wade vs Mike De Decker the first game of the evening from 7.10pm.
The tournament, hosted in Milton Keynes’ Marshall Arena, with the biggest shock being the exit of recent Dutch Dart Masters winner Rob Cross as he fell to William O’Connor, despite Cross averaging just over 103 in the four sets.
Elsewhere there were wins for seeds across the board, with wins for the world number one, Luke Humphries and number five , and defending Masters champion, Stephen Bunting.
The most hotly anticipated tie will be when World Champion Luke Littler faces the Belgian Andy Baetens at 9.40pm.
Baetens, currently world number 94, had to qualify through the Preliminary group stage, in which he dispatched Dominik Gruellich and the enigmatic Leonard Gates, both in straight sets. Baetens’ knockout qualifiers saw him defeat Jose de Sousa , Martin Lukeman and Darius Labanauskas.
In our eyes, the best tie comes at the end of the evening as Gary Anderson takes on Dimitri van Den Bergh. Anderson is the seed in this tie, thanks to his strong ProTour campaign last year, but his 2024 saw crushing 3-0 defeat against Jeffery De Graaft.
Van Den Bergh reached a round further than the flying Scotsman, yet Anderson holds the advantage with the bookies. The Belgian can jump into the Top 16 with two wins in this tournament.
Defeated World Championship finalist Michael Van Gerwen plays world number 215 Bradley Brooks, beating Krzysztof Ratajski and Ian ‘Diamond’ White in the qualification rounds.
There are two all English ties; as Nathan Aspinall plays Andrew Guilding before Chris Dobey against Ryan Searle.
Dave Chisnall plays the Scotsman Cameron Menzies, with both having first game defeats in the recent World Championships. Menzies tasted defeat against Leonard Gates, and ended the match in tears, later revealing that his father was spending time in hospital at the time of the event.
Our last match to preview is Johnny Clayton vs Martin Schindler. Clayton would fall in the Round of 16 at the Worlds, and the world number seven is the bookies favourite against Schindler. Clayton could rise as high as sixth, but he would require going all of the way in MK.
