The new darts season begins Thursday night for the world's top players with a World Series tournament in Bahrain. The gulf state is hosting the second edition of the Bahrain Darts Masters.
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Last year, the PDC traveled to Bahrain for the first time and then Michael Smith managed to win the first-ever edition of the Bahrain Darts Masters. By the way, it was not the first time the PDC hosted a tournament in the Middle East. Previously the Dubai Darts Masters was held annually from 2013 to 2017 in the United Arab Emirates.
The tournament gets underway with a duel between Gerwyn Price and Reynaldo Rivera, who was most recently in action at the World Darts Championship. The Filipino then lost 3-1 in sets to Keane Barry in the first round. Peter Wright will be in action in the second match against Haruki Muramatsu, before Nathan Aspinall takes on Lourence Ilagan.
Rob Cross plays Tomoya Goto halfway through the session, and then Luke Littler makes his World Series debut against Man Lok Leung. The latter caused another sensation at the World Darts Championship by eliminating Gian van Veen.
Luke Humphries will play his very first match as world champion against Abdulla Saeed. After that, Michael van Gerwen will make his appearance against Hasan Haji, before the first round concludes with a friendly between Michael Smith and Paolo Nebrida.
The first round will be completed entirely on Thursday night. The eight remaining players will advance to Friday. Then the quarterfinals, semifinals and finals will be played consecutively.
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