The Last 16 is complete at the 2025 Bahrain Darts Masters and the last eight remaining will battle for the title on Friday evening in Sakhir. But will it be Luke Littler going back-to-back or will it be a different winner.
Schedule is now confirmed for the World Series of Darts opener which continues on Friday with the Quarter-Finals, Semi-Finals and Final over one night starting a bit earlier at 4pm UK time and 7pm local time.
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Starting off proceedings is Luke Humphries who produced as flawless a display to open the new season as you are likely to see. He needed just 11 minutes and 10 seconds to whitewash Abdulla Saaed with checkouts of 151, 100 and 144.
He overcame the local star flawless on the outer ring and hitting a near 104 average. Humphries played almost like a pro at an exhibition who doesn't want to give any of the crowd a chance as he didn't let Saaed have any opportunity.
He now faces Nathan Aspinall who performed admirably given that it was revealed that he has an infection in his throwing arm which no doubt is causing him pain and he still saw off Xiaochen Zong with a good display. So either it will not rear its head at all this weekend or he will fall apart against Humphries. Time will tell.
Game two sees two of the top performers from the opening session outside of Humphries collide as fans favourite Stephen Bunting takes on Chris Dobey. Both afforded this chance after returning to the Premier League, they seized it with their opening displays.
Bunting took out 145 and 122 to claim a 6-2 win over Nitin Kumar, while Dobey hammered Basem Mahmood with a 112 checkout and 84 and 83 on the bull for a whitewash win. Both were superb in their openers and it could be a clash with real fireworks amid the backdrop of other ties that perhaps might steal the headlines.
Such as Luke Littler who continues his run for back-to-back titles and following up his World Championship with another title. The hottest commodity in darts if not sport in the UK right now, Littler continues to have all the eyes on him.
He perhaps showed some rust from going on holiday and also deciding to chuck away his World Championship winning set of darts. He was pushed by Lourence Ilagan. But now it is Gerwyn Price who awaits who did most of his happy hunting on the World Series in 2024. He was good if not unspectacular as he saw off Lok Yin Lee 6-3 as he showed his scoring but also at times struggled on the doubles.
If the top level Luke Littler turns up, Price will need to produce a lot better to stand a chance against the prodigy. Then Bahrain will be Livin Nebrida Loca as the Filipino thrower who made history on Thursday night returns. Paolo Nebrida became the first Asian representative in this event to win a match as Rob Cross became the unfortunate victim.
Cross gets into these tournaments and also the Premier League by his ranking but perhaps needs to go back to the drawing board now ahead of Den Bosch next weekend after a horror show on the doubles. He now faces Peter Wright who dealt with the methodical Alexis Toylo in the last round.
It is another Filipino but one that isn't as slow so Wright will hope to play his own game showing form in glimmers while also having to deal with resetting his rhythm every other throw so perhaps wasn't the best gauge. The winners face each other so Humphries or Aspinall will face Bunting or Dobey. While Littler or Price face Wright or Nebrida. Who emerges as champion?
Quarter-Finals see the format stay at first to six legs and as the rounds increase towards the final, it will go up by two legs each time.
Round | Best of (legs) |
First Round | 11 legs |
Quarter-Finals | 11 legs |
Semi-Finals | 13 legs |
Final | 15 legs |
The Bahrain Darts Masters will be broadcast in the UK as usual by ITV4. All matches during both sessions can be seen via this channel.
It will begin at 4pm on Thursday which takes in the first round with a bumper Friday featuring the Quarter-Finals, Semi-Finals and Final all in one session to crown the champion from 5pm.
The Prize Money remains the same from previous World Series of Darts editions with £20,000 to the winner. The runner-up seals £10,000. While semi-finalists seal £10,000. The Quarter-Finals gleams £2,500 while losing in the first round claims £1,250.
The player who scoops the title on Friday night will not see it count towards the PDC Order of Merit but instead it will count towards the World Series Order of Merit with the Amsterdam season ender at the end of 2025.
Friday January 17
Evening session (from 16:00pm)
Quarter-Finals
Luke Humphries v Nathan Aspinall
Stephen Bunting v Chris Dobey
Luke Littler v Gerwyn Price
Paolo Nebrida v Peter Wright
Best of 11 legs
Semi-Finals
Humphries/Aspinall v Bunting/Dobey
Littler/Price v Nebrida/Wright
Best of 13 legs
Final
v
Best of 15 legs