Preview Thursday night World Matchplay 2025: Clayton-Bunting and Wade-Van Veen begin Quarter-Finals

The first two quarter-finals of the World Matchplay 2025 are scheduled for Thursday evening, July 24. Let's run through them both in our preview.

The tournament at the Winter Gardens is the second largest ranking tournament of the year. With a prize pool of 800,000 pounds, players can take a big hit in the world rankings. The field of participants at the World Matchplay consists of 32 players. The top-16 of the PDC Order of Merit are seeded in the first round, and the sixteen best Pro Tour players complete the lineup.
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Luke Humphries began the tournament as the defending champion, having been too strong for Dutchman Michael van Gerwen in last year's 18-15 final. However, 'Cool Hand Luke' was eliminated after a 10-8 defeat in the first round against Gian van Veen. Below we preview the first two quarterfinals to be played on Thursday night.

Gian van Veen will face 'The Machine' James Wade. The Giant' managed to pull off the biggest surprise of the tournament in his first round match by sending defending champion Luke Humphries home, allowing him to take on compatriot Danny Noppert in the second round. In this match he impressed again with good scores and some strong finishes. After the first two sessions Van Veen was already leading 7-3, although that was somewhat flattered as Noppert also played a fine match. But with finishes of 150 and 120 at crucial moments he had built up a comfortable lead. He would not give this lead away again. Van Veen never got into trouble and eventually won the match 11-5.

In turn, his opponent James Wade was too strong for another Dutchman in the second round, having already convincingly dealt with Joe Cullen in his opening match. This time Wessel Nijman was the victim. Until the first 10 legs the match was fairly even, but then the Englishman stepped up his pace and with finishes of 82, 126 and 76 he took a 9-4 lead. Nijman played solid, but not good enough to stagger 'The Machine'. Wade, who threw over 104 in the first round, again finished with an average of 102.53. This shows that he is comfortable in his skin at the moment. On paper Van Veen might be the favorite, but the Wade we have seen so far in Blackpool is very hard to beat. If the Machine takes this game to the stage in the quarterfinals as well, it could go either way and certain finishes at the right moments could be the deciding factor.

The second quarterfinal of the evening is between Stephen Bunting and Jonny Clayton. Bunting dealt with Ryan Joyce in his first round match, allowing him to take on the experienced Gary Anderson in the second round. The Bullet' did not play a great match, which eventually went in the books as one with a lot of missed doubles. Both Bunting and Anderson finished with a finishing percentage of around 25%, so the penny could just as well have dropped the other way. But in the end it fell to Bunting, who needed an extension. At 10-7 the Englishman seemed certain of the quarterfinals, but saw 'The Flying Scotsman' come back to 10-10. This meant a difference of two legs was needed to win the match. In those legs, Anderson again had chances, but missed them as had been the case with the Scot throughout the match. Bunting then finally secured his quarterfinal place via a 112 finish.

Jonny Clayton had to deal with German Martin Schindler in his opening match to force a duel in the second round with Mike De Decker. The Welshman didn't get it right against the Belgian either, lingering in the match for a long time. After the second break there was an 8-6 tie on the board in favor of "The Ferret" at one point. From then on, Clayton did not relinquish a single leg of his own, eventually settling with the Belgian 11-8. Bunting and Clayton have met a total of 18 times before, of which the Englishman won 7 and Clayton 11. This indicates that both men are evenly matched, and also this time it will normally be close if both players play their normal game. However, 'The Bullet' will have to get his doubles in order, otherwise Clayton might have an easier night than he expected.