Preview Friday night World Series of Darts Finals: Humphries v Wade, Bunting, Rock and Van Gerwen among highlights

From Friday, September 12 through Sunday, September 14, the World Series of Darts Finals 2025 is scheduled to be held at AFAS Live, Amsterdam. This tournament is the finale of all World Series tournaments played over the past year.

After the previous World Series events, the top eight players are seeded via the Order of Merit. Behind them follow the unseeded competitors who made an appearance during the season but did not accumulate enough points to secure seeded status. The remaining spots will be filled by players from the Order of Merit and via the Tour Card Qualifier.

Last year it was Luke Littler who claimed the title. In the final, the 18-year-old cleared 11-4 against Michael Smith, who will not even be present this year. 'The Nuke' will be one of the big favorites again this year. Friday night the first matches are on the schedule, and here you can read which players will be in action.
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We immediately start the evening with a home hope derby. Kevin Doets will take on Jermaine Wattimena. Doets was also present in Amsterdam last year, and left a good impression then. He defeated Keane Barry in the first round 6-0 and then came out ahead in the second round 5-3 against Rob Cross. Unfortunately for the audience present in AFAS Live, he lost the last three legs and still lost the match 6-5. Wattimena's last participation in the World Series of Darts Finals dates back to 2019, when the tournament was held in Amsterdam for the first time. Back then, 'The Machine Gun' won 6-4 against Gabriel Clemens in the first round, but then had to acknowledge his compatriot Raymond van Barneveld in the second round. Based on current form and performance, Wattimena would be slightly the favorite, but certainly does not rule out Doets in front of his own crowd.

Next, Krzysztof Ratajski and Josh Rock will take on each other. Josh Rock is in top form and is currently one of the best players on the tour. It will be the Northern Irishman's debut at the final tournament, but despite the fact that he has not played here before, he is one of the favorites. 'Rocky' managed to reach the final the past two Euro Tour tournaments, and it seems only a matter of time before he manages to win a tournament to his name soon. For Ratajski, too, it will be his debut in Amsterdam. 'The Polish Eagle' can be very dangerous on a good day, but in Rock's current form he seems to need a top day to stop the current World Cup of Darts winner.

In the third match of the evening, Damon Heta and Joe Cullen face each other. Heta was also present last year when he defeated Gabriel Clemens 6-5 in the first round. However, in the next round Luke Humphries was too strong for the Australian with 6-5, ending his tournament early. Cullen was last present in 2022. As the seeded player, "Rockstar" did not have to play the first round and entered the tournament one round later. There he faced Dave Chisnall, whom he managed to beat 6-5. In the quarterfinals, however, the Englishman was no match for Gerwyn Price and eventually went down 10-8.

Mike De Decker will play Gabriel Clemens in the first round. De Decker impressed earlier this year at the World Series tournaments Down Under, where he himself managed to reach the final in Australia on his debut. This enabled him to secure a starting spot for the final tournament. Clemens has been a bit out of the picture lately, but surprisingly has been a regular at the World Series of Darts Finals for years. Of the past six editions, the German has attended four tournaments. So far, however, it has not really been a resounding success for "The German Giant," who has not once managed to advance beyond the first round.

The fifth match is one to look forward to. Current world No. 1 Luke Humphries will take on the seasoned James Wade. Humphries lost the semifinals to Van Gerwen in 2023, and last year it already went wrong in the quarterfinals against Van Gerwen again. 'Cool Hand Luke' will be eager to win the tournament for the first time, but will first have to deal with a tough opponent. Wade has only missed two editions since the tournament's inception in 2015, although those were the past two years. His best result came in 2018, when he claimed the title by beating Michael Smith 11-10 in the final. 'The Machine' is a master at playing mindgames and will likely pull out all the stops again to take Humphries off his game.

Then perhaps the match the Dutch crowd is looking forward to on Friday night: Wessel Nijman takes on none other than Michael van Gerwen. Normally Van Gerwen would always be named favorite beforehand, but this year it is different. Mighty Mike' is not in good shape, while Nijman is making progress in recent months. Last weekend he impressed at the Czech Darts Open by reaching the quarterfinals. There Nijman was 5-3 up against Luke Humphries, but eventually lost the match 6-5. Still, we should not write Van Gerwen off in advance, especially not in Amsterdam. MVG' has won the World Series of Darts five times already, so despite his lesser form you can't rule him out this year. Still, Nijman currently seems to have an edge to win this Dutch duel at home.

Stephen Bunting then takes on Danny Noppert. Bunting starts the tournament as first seed after winning both the Bahrain Darts Masters and the Nordic Darts Masters. He also managed to reach the final at the Dutch Darts Masters and Poland Darts Masters. This makes 'The Bullet' one of the favorites to claim the title, thus giving his successful run at the World Series tournaments a fitting end. However, the Englishman does not have an easy draw with Noppert. 'The Freeze' has been in the top 16 for years, which shows how consistently he performs. The Dutchman attended the past four editions, but never managed to advance beyond the second round. Noppert will want to improve on that this year, but will first have to deal with one of the best players at the World Series this year.

We then conclude the evening with a duel between Rob Cross and Haupai Puha. Cross was present in Amsterdam the past two editions, and twice the quarterfinals were his finish. With Puha, 'Voltage' has had a pretty lucky draw. The New Zealander qualified for the tournament through his participation in both the Australian Darts Masters and the New Zealand Darts Masters. However, 'Hopes' faced both Luke Littler and Luke Humphries in his first matches at those tournaments, and thus failed to win a match. Normally, then, Cross should be able to beat Puha and perhaps advance to the quarterfinals for the third year.