PREVIEW Friday Poland Darts Masters with Luke Littler, Michael van Gerwen and Gerwyn Price in action

The Poland Darts Masters gets underway tonight in Gliwice. At this fifth tournament of the World Series of Darts 2025, we will look for a successor to Luke Littler, who managed to win the tournament last year by beating Rob Cross 8-3 in the final.

The Poland Darts Masters was first organized in 2023 and was then won by Michael van Gerwen. Along with Littler, last year's winner, the two former winners of this World Series tournament are thus also present at this year's edition.

Conspicuous absentee is world number one Luke Humphries. He is taking a week off after winning the US Darts Masters last week. Apart from Humphries, the entire top four of the world rankings will be present in Poland.
Follow the Poland Darts Masters via our live scores!

The evening kicks off with the duel between Chris Dobey and Hungarian Gyorgy Jehirszki. Dobey, who competed in this year's Premier League Darts, obviously starts this duel as the towering favorite. Jehirszki managed to qualify for this tournament by defeating Janos Vegso in the final of the Hungarian qualifying tournament. Winning a few legs would probably already be a success for Jehirszki, after all, Dobey has been particularly good this year as evidenced by his two titles in the Players Championship.

Who is in even better shape this year is Gerwyn Price. After an ailing year in 2024, 'The Iceman' is back at it again. He recently indicated that he has been enjoying being back at the oche for some time now and that translates into his results. Price already won three Players Championships this year and also reached the semifinals of the Premier League Darts. Earlier this year, he also reached the final of the Bahrain Darts Masters, in which Stephen Bunting eventually proved too strong. The 40-year-old Welshman will take on Sebastian Bialecki in the first round of the Poland Darts Masters. The 21-year-old Pole has been a PDC Tour Card holder since the beginning of this year and has already won a tournament on the Development Tour. 'Bolt' has been known as a great talent for some time, wait and see if he can make things difficult for Price.

Afterwards, it is the turn of Rob Cross and Krzysztof Kciuk to enter the fray. Cross reached the final at last year's Poland Darts Masters and will be keen to win it this year. However, "Voltage" has not been in form in recent weeks and has also been in the news negatively after being ordered to pay back a large sum of money in taxes. Against Kciuk, however, Cross should have little trouble. The Pole is a former Tour Card holder, but managed to present few appealing results.

Michael van Gerwen then follows against Pero Ljubic. 'Mighty Mike' returned to US Darts Masters last week after a brief absence due to his split from his wife and reached the quarter-finals there, where he lost to Price. Against fellow Tour Card holder Ljubic, Van Gerwen should have few problems. The Croatian somewhat surprisingly captured a Tour Card at Q-School earlier this year, but has barely won matches since.

Stephen Bunting is the man of the World Series of Darts 2025 for now. The Bullet has already won two tournaments (Bahrain Darts Masters and Nordic Darts Masters) and was a losing finalist at the Dutch Darts Masters. Bunting has moved up to fourth in the world rankings and is currently brimming with confidence. Against home player Tytus Kanik, at the time the first Pole ever to conquer a PDC Tour Card, Bunting starts as towering favorite to reach the quarter-finals.

Luke Littler won the tournament last year and hopes to extend his title this year. The Nuke' became the youngest world champion ever earlier this year and added a second major at the beginning of March with the UK Open. Littler has been dry as far as tournament victories go and will therefore be extra keen to win the Poland Darts Masters this weekend. However, his opponent in the first round, Czech Karel Sedlacek, should not be underestimated. Sedlacek has a lot of experience and regularly throws high averages. If he succeeds in doing the same tonight, he might make things difficult for Littler.

The penultimate match of the evening features the duel between Jonny Clayton and Krzysztof Ratajski. Clayton may have the least luck with Ratajski among the PDC top players. The 48-year-old Pole has been an established player in the PDC for many years and has defeated all the top players on several occasions. After a lesser period, 'The Polish Eagle' is incidentally in excellent form in recent months. Clayton, however, can rely on his own strength and is in excellent form this year. 'The Ferret' already won a Players Championship and a Euro Tour in 2025 and reached the final at the Winmau World Masters early this year. Clayton-Ratajski announces itself as a particularly exciting duel.

Rounding out the evening in Gliwice will be Nathan Aspinall and Radek Szaganski. 'The Asp', plagued by darteritus and injury problems, had a mediocre 2024. This year, however, he is at it again and has already won two Euro Tours. Just last week, Aspinall lost the final of the US Darts Masters against Humphries. Against Szaganski, the current number 80 in the world rankings, Aspinall is favorite, but it is best not to underestimate the Pole;

Chris Dobey v Gyorgy Jehirszki

Gerwyn Price v Sebastian Bialecki

Rob Cross v Krzysztof Kciuk

Michael van Gerwen v Pero Ljubic

Stephen Bunting v Tytus Kanik

Luke Littler v Karel Sedlacek

Jonny Clayton v Krzysztof Ratajski

Nathan Aspinall v Radek Szaganski

Quarterfinal

Final