Preview Saturday New Zealand Darts Masters 2025: who will take Auckland World Series title?

Just like last week in Australia, it is the eight PDC players who managed to get through to the final day of the New Zealand Darts Masters. They will battle for the title at the World Series tournament in Auckland on Saturday morning from 08:00 AM Dutch time. First the quarter-finals will be played, followed by the semi-finals and final.

The PDC came to Auckland for the first time in 2015, hosting the Auckland Darts Masters annually through 2018. Adrian Lewis (2015), Gary Anderson (2016), Kyle Anderson (2017) and Michael van Gerwen (2018) won the title there at the time. In 2019, the New Zealand World Series tournament was renamed the New Zealand Darts Masters, and gained a new venue with Hamilton. Van Gerwen won the first edition of this event after a win over Raymond van Barneveld in a Dutch final.

Due to the corona pandemic, the 2020 and 2021 editions were cancelled before the PDC returned to Hamilton in 2022. Gerwyn Price then captured the title at the expense of Jonny Clayton. Rob Cross ran away with the title in 2023, before Luke Humphries claimed the title in 2024. As of this year, the tournament will be played again in Auckland for the first time since 2018.

The quarterfinals will be played according to seeding and that means Stephen Bunting will appear on the oche in the first quarterfinal. 'The Bullet' has been leading the World Series Order of Merit all season. Bunting needs one more win to ensure himself of first place for good, which would mean he would start as number one on the seedings list at the World Series Finals next month in Amsterdam.

The darter from St. Helens got through the first round on Friday without any problems. With Ben Robb, Bunting had one of the most difficult draws on paper, but Robb was swept aside 6-3 with an average of "only" 92.33. Chris Dobey had to make a bigger effort to qualify for the last eight. 'Hollywood' won 6-4 over 'good old' Simon Whitlock, who gave up a break lead twice before Dobey sealed a decisive break himself in the tenth leg.

It will be the sixth mutual meeting between the two Englishmen in 2025. Bunting won the first at the Bahrain Darts Masters, the tournament that 'The Bullet' eventually managed to win. Dobey, however, was the best in three of the five encounters, surprisingly leading 14-5 in the overall head-to-head.

That Luke Humphries is not in his best phase showed 'Cool Hand Luke' again on Friday. The world number one once again failed to convince. Humphries threw only 89.47 average. Nevertheless, that was enough for Humphries to record a 6-3 victory over Haupai Puha.

His next opponent Damon Heta also did not fare well on Friday, although 'The Heat' can claim as an excuse that he barely faced any opposition. His opponent Dean Reyland threw a moyenne of barely 72.29. Heta countered that with an average of 86.69, which was good for a big 6-1 victory. On a positive note for the Australian, his 6/13 finishes were excellent.

Humphries' performance was not encouraging, but the former world champion can draw hope from his excellent record against Heta. The Perth-based darter managed to win only one of the previous 11 encounters with Humphries to his liking. That was at a Players Championship tournament in 2024. Of the 10 wins Humphries set against Heta, no fewer than six were on a Euro Tour stage or television tournament.

Just like last week in Wollongong, Gerwyn Price started the tournament creditably, although 'The Iceman' felt he left his opponent Jonny Tata in the match too long. However, that was also mostly to the credit of Tata himself, who came off well with a 96.81 average and a 50 percent finish percentage. However, it was not enough to really trouble Price. Although Price's doubles (6/16) still left much to be desired, his scoring was fine with an average of 103.60 and no fewer than seven 180s.

Josh Rock at times also showed his excellent form of recent weeks. 'Rocky' rushed to a 4-0 lead in his match against John Hurring and then briefly let go of the reins. Hurring then halved the deficit to 4-2 before Rock stepped up another level. Via a 10-darter and a 14-darter, the Northern Irishman put a 6-2 final score on the scoreboard.

It will be the first meeting between these two players since their showdown at the World Matchplay, where Rock prevailed against the former world champion in a sublime 16-11 match. That victory also means that the balance between these two players is now even, although the last two clashes both went to Rock.

Once again Luke Littler and Mike de Decker face each other at 'Down Under'. Whereas last week they met in the final of the Australian Darts Masters, this time they meet in the quarterfinals. De Decker was the quickest of the two in the first round. The Belgian did not have to show the back of his tongue against Gordon Mathers and won 6-1 thanks to an average of 94.40 and a finishing percentage of 37.5 percent.

Littler again needed overtime against a local player. Where 'The Nuke' needed a deciding leg last week against Haupai Puha (6-5), this time it was Mark Cleaver who managed to take four legs from the reigning world champion. Remarkable was that Littler did not throw a 180 during the entire match, normally his trademark.

Last week, Littler sealed the Australian Darts Masters to his name by winning 8-4 over Decker in the final, and now the 18-year-old Englishman is just three wins away from winning the clean sweep at the World Series trip Down Under. In the past, only Michael van Gerwen (2019) and Rob Cross (2023) managed to take both a title in Australia and New Zealand in the same season.