PREVIEW Wednesday night World Matchplay 2025 | Gerwyn Price, Luke Littler and Michael van Gerwen in action

Wednesday evening, July 23, the last four matches of the second round of the World Matchplay 2025 are scheduled with Luke Littler, Gerwyn Price and Michael van Gerwen in action.

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 16 best Pro Tour players complete the lineup.
Follow the 2025 World Matchplay via our live scores!

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 four matches from Tuesday's evening session.

Chris Dobey opens up as he takes on Gerwyn Price. Dobey played a difficult match in the first round against German Ricardo Petreczko, who was totally out of sorts. The only reason 'Pikachu' was able to keep up at the beginning of the match was because of Dobey's many missed doubles. However, after the second break, when the score was 6-4 in favor of 'Hollywood', the Englishman pressed on. Dobey won 4 of the last 5 legs to eventually record a relatively easy 10-5 victory.

Gerwyn Price played in his opening match a heated duel against Daryl Gurney. After the match, then, it was more about the friendly between the two than the result. But what was going on? The Welshman cheered after an 82 finish to lead 4-1 in his usual exuberant manner, which Gurney seemed annoyed with by then. Later, when Gurney threw out 62 to come back to 6-3, the Northern Irishman imitated Price by mocking his way of cheering.

All in all, both men tried to get slightly under each other's skin, with Price in particular getting annoyed with "Superchin. And that became clear at the end of the match. 'The Iceman' threw out 81 to win the match, after which he gave Gurney a firm handshake and visibly irritated. After the Northern Irishman walked back to his table surprised, Price then threw out an extra primal cry to rub it in a bit more, after which he walked off the stage. After that, it was reportedly behind-the-scenes turmoil between the two as well. Despite all this commotion, the Welshman did play an excellent match and will also be the favorite in advance against Dobey Wednesday night.

In the second match of the evening it is time for the first Dutchman. Dirk van Duijvenbode appears on the oche to take on Andrew Gilding. Van Duijvenbode played in the first round against Rob Cross, where he struggled to get into his rhythm especially in the first part of the match. 'Aubergenius' faced a 6-2 deficit in the second session, but managed to come back to 6-4 before the second break via a 14-darter and an 11-darter, keeping himself in the match. From then on, Van Duijvenbode was really loose, and at a score of 7-7, the darter from 's-Gravenzande handed out the definite knockout. Cross killed himself on double 16, giving the Dutchman another chance at 137. Via triple 19 and two tops Van Duijvenbode threw out this finish, and this turned out to be the final blow for 'Voltage'. The Englishman could hardly find a triple and saw the Dutchman eventually win 10-8.

Andrew Gilding was in turn too strong for Australian Damon Heta. It turned out to be a true thriller as it remained very close throughout the match. The highlight? The ninth leg. Gilding was only one dart away from a nine darter after he hit the double 12 just above the wire. After that, the men kept each other balanced until 10-10, requiring a two-leg difference to end the match winningly. Gilding broke Heta in the 21st leg, and then managed to hold his own throw in 13 darts to secure a spot in the second round. 'Goldfinger' played very strong and recorded an average of over 100, but it remains to be seen whether he can show this again. Van Duijvenbode also impressed in the second part of his match. On paper it can be a very exciting match, but if one of the two does not give home it can also be over very quickly.

Luke Littler then faces the Dutch ace Jermaine Wattimena. Wattimena defeated 'Snakebite' Peter Wright in the first round. Yet the Dutchman will not be entirely satisfied with his performance. 'The Machine Gun' seemed to be heading for an easy victory with a 7-3 lead in the second break, but then let the Scot come all the way back to 8-8. Wright then missed two arrows to get to 9-8 as well, allowing Wattimena to take the lead via double 4. The Dutchman then finished it off with a 15-darter.

Luke Littler showed once again in his match against Ryan Searle why, after losing to Humphries, he is now the absolute top favorite. 'The Nuke' recorded an average of 108.82 and gave 'Heavy Metal' no chance to get into the match, despite the fact that he too was throwing above 100 average for almost the entire match. Littler threw 180 five times and finished with a finishing percentage above 50 percent. If Wattimena is to have any chance of pulling off a stunt he will have to keep up from the start and take advantage of every chance he gets. But if Littler ticks up to Sunday night's level it seems like a hopeless mission for the Dutchman.

The final match of the evening is between Michael van Gerwen and Josh Rock, potentially a delightful match. However, much will depend on how the Dutchman appears at the oche. 'Mighty Mike' managed to win Monday night's Dutch clash with Raymond van Barneveld, but he hasn't really impressed yet. Despite the fact that he might have won the match 10-2 (it ended up 10-6) not everything went the way he wanted. Especially the doubles were difficult, which was the main reason why Van Barneveld was able to stay in the match and it became somewhat exciting.

Josh Rock, on the other hand, did impress. Rocky' was leading 5-0 after the first session, partly because his opponent Ross Smith did not play as well. From that point on, Smith started to offer some resistance, so it seemed to get exciting. But Rock never really got into trouble. With one 10-darter, one 11-darter and three 12-darters the Northern Irishman ended the match with an average of 104.32. Van Gerwen will have to improve a lot if he wants to have a chance to beat Rock. At the moment it looks like 'Rocky' in his current form has an edge over 'MVG', but as everyone knows by now, you can never completely write off Michael van Gerwen beforehand.