The last darts day of the year is upon us. We have six more matches from the fourth round at the 2025 PDC World Darts Championship on the schedule on Monday, three of which will be played in the afternoon session.
The winners of the fourth round may return in the new year for the continuation of the World Darts Championship on New Year's Day. The fourth round will be played over a format of best of 7 sets.
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Kevin Doets v Chris Dobey
What a great tournament Kevin Doets has already had and it can get even better for 'Hawkeye'. The Dutchman, who lives in Sweden, started his tournament with a difficult 3-1 victory over Noa-Lynn van Leuven, but then managed to get rid of Michael Smith (3-2) and Krzysztof Ratajski (4-3). Against Ratajski, Doets got off to a good start, though, as the Pole missed four match darts to knock Doets out of the tournament. Because of his good performance in Alexandra Palace, Doets has already moved up ten spots in the virtual world rankings. He started the World Darts Championship as number 51 in the world and is now ranked 41st. By the way, he will remain there if Doets manages to win from Dobey.
Chris Dobey was responsible for the elimination of Alexander Merkx in the second round. In that match 'Hollywood' easily took a 2-0 lead, after which he let go of the reins a bit. This allowed Merkx to take a set and eventually made it 3-1 in sets for the Englishman. Then Dobey was too strong 4-2 in sets for Josh Rock. It is the sixth time in the seven years that Dobey has reached the last sixteen in London, and at the 2023 and 2024 editions the former Masters champion even made it to the quarter-finals.
It will be the fourth time Doets and Dobey will meet in an official match. In 2022, Doets won the first showdown 6-1, but the last two duels were won by Dobey. Also by large numbers; 6-0 and 6-2.
Robert Owen v Callan Rydz
Originally not even qualified for the World Darts Championship, and now in the fourth round. Robert Owen is experiencing a special month, in which he was added to the tournament as a participant at the last minute after Dom Taylor tested positive in a doping test. This gave Owen an extreme chance to save his Tour Card, and he has since succeeded after wins over Niels Zonneveld (3-1), Gabriel Clemens (3-1) and Ricky Evans (4-2).
Callan Rydz is another big surprise this tournament. The Englishman was already in the quarterfinals once at the 2022 World Darts Championship, but then actually had two very bad seasons. Neither season was very positive, but in recent weeks Rydz has mentally got it back on track. And then "The Riot" is capable of great things. In his first round against Romeo Grbavac (3-0), he recorded an average of 107. After Martin Schindler was swept away 3-0 in sets, he also did not concede a set against Dimitri van den Bergh (4-0) and Rydz reached a moyenne of 105.
The only previous meeting between these two players was won by Rydz. They met in 2023 at a Players Championship tournament. Then Rydz pulled out the win 6-4.
Ricardo Pietreczko v Nathan Aspinall
An interesting bill to end the afternoon with. Can Ricardo Pietreczko become the second German ever to qualify for the last eight at the World Darts Championship? 'Pikachu' could then follow in the footsteps of Gabriel Clemens, who managed this two editions ago. Pietreczko has already had a strong tournament, winning on his way to the last sixteen over Xiaochen Zong (3-0), Gian van Veen (3-1) and Scott Williams (4-1).
Given Nathan Aspinall's form, another win is certainly a possibility. The Asp' recorded victories over Leonard Gates (3-1) and Andrew Gilding (4-0). It was not all very convincing, although Aspinall was strong on the doubles, which is normally also Pietreczko's specialty. Aspinall can reach the last eight at the World Darts Championship for the first time since the 2020 edition. Perhaps this performance would also help him get an invitation to the Premier League, which Aspinall would love to compete in in 2025.
It will be only the second showdown between Aspinall and Pietreczko. The previous one was also televised. In 2023, they met at the Grand Slam of Darts. Then it was Pietreczko who managed a 5-4 victory over the two-time major winner.
Sky Sports are broadcasting the entire World Darts Championship in the UK with coverage throughout on a dedicated channel Sky Sports Darts.
A subscription is required to access this though which can be sought on a Sky box or through their streaming platform.
The 96 participants at the 2025 World Darts Championship may divide as much as 2.5 million pounds between them. That amount is almost forty times higher than at the very first edition of the PDC Worlds in 1994.
The 64 participants to start in the first round of the World Darts Championship will receive £7500 in prize money anyway. The top-32 of the seeding list are guaranteed 15,000 pounds. These players enter the World Darts Championship from the second round. The amount then increases further each round. The new world champion will receive the top prize of 500,000 pounds.
First round: Best of 5 sets
Second round: Best of 5 sets
Third round: Best of 7 sets
Fourth round: Best of 7 sets
Quarterfinals: Best of 9 sets
Semifinals: Best of 11 sets
Final: Best of 13 sets
In the first round, there will be no tiebreak if it is 2-2 after four legs in the fifth set. In that case, the fifth leg will be sudden-death. Starting from the second round, a tie-break rule will be applied in all matches; a deciding set must be won with a difference of two legs. If the score in the final set becomes 5-5, a sudden-death leg will still be played.
Monday, Dec. 30
Afternoon session (from 12:30 p.m.)
Fourth round
Kevin Doets v Chris Dobey
Robert Owen v Callan Rydz
Ricardo Pietreczko v Nathan Aspinall