Feels like it's been a season where Dobey's played really well, but the results haven't really reflected what he's done to follow up his worlds semi final from twelve months ago. Certainly in terms of TV, he's not really kicked on, with just the quarter final at Minehead recently (losing to Littler so fine), and then not really making progression anywhere else beyond the bare minimum advancement. Certainly a few he'd want back, but some were just him running into better players, or those at least in the same tier. He's also surprisingly still to win on the European Tour - he did get to the final session four times, but only reached the one semi final and there were far too many second round losses. He did strike decent paydirt on the floor, with a final and then a win really early in the Pro Tour season, adding a second title mid season and then a third during a good ending where he was in the quarter finals or better in four of the last five events. I'm sure he won't mind having a bit of a mediocre TV year if he goes deep in this one, which he does have a habit of doing, although repeating last year's run is going to take some effort.
Zong returns for a fifth crack here and a third straight appearance, and he's yet to end up on the winning side of a match and has only won a set in one event, with a 3-0 sets loss last year to Ricardo Pietreczko seeing him on the wrong side of an 85 average and never really threatening the German winner. He returns having won the China Championship, where he didn't really put up great numbers, but didn't need to as he only lost one set in the knockout stages. Some better averages came in the Chinese Premier League playoffs where he broke 90 both times, and he did pick up a couple of titles on their local tour. He did play in the Asian Championship, where he lost in the first knockout round to Paul Lim, and he has shown up on the Asian Tour a few times, but not really doing much with just the one semi and a couple of quarters, although the World Cup did see Zong pick up a win at least. He seems clearly the best player from his country and has been for some time, but frankly that's not that high a bar and this is too tough a task for him realistically.
Gilding has dropped back out of the top 32 this season with his UK Open winning money dropping off, and while he's looked alright statistically, much like Dobey he's not really done a huge amount in terms of results, with the odd exception here and there. On TV he was one and done in defending that major win money against Ryan Joyce, but did recover a bit with a decent Matchplay run to the quarters, getting an overtime win against Heta then racing into a 5-0 lead against Dirk and holding it out from there prior to pushing Littler surprisingly close. He'd be the last man into the Grand Prix field and lose to Jonny Clayton, then not qualify for anything else after a fairly dry run in the lower ranking events. Gilding did make a Euro Tour final in Sindelfingen, where he didn't win a leg against Gary Anderson, but several first round defeats meant he missed out on the finals, and it was kind of similar on the Pro Tour, where he got to four semi finals, but two thirds of the time he either didn't play or lost in the first or second round. He'd have liked an easier start than this.
Cam Crabtree will make his debut here after a very successful first year as a tour card holder, ending up well up the Pro Tour rankings to qualify here, as well as winning the overall Development Tour to gain plenty of valuable TV experience. On that Dev Tour, Crabtree won three events in the third weekend, and added another two later on in the season, which would be enough to see him finish over two and a half grand ahead of Beau Greaves to top the standings and qualify for the Grand Slam. There he'll probably feel a bit disappointed, having beaten Jonny Clayton but then losing a decider to Noppert then a winner takes all finale against Lukas Wenig to not make the knockout stages. Elsewhere on the senior circuit, Cam got a bit of a UK Open run going with fine wins over Plaisier and Baetens before a bit of a surprise loss to Radek Szaganski, and in his Minehead return he edged out Mike de Decker before averaging over a ton in a deciding leg loss to possible second round opponent Chris Dobey. Cam made three European Tour events but only had the one narrow win over Luke Woodhouse, while on the Pro Tour he was steady, getting to the last eight on three occasions and winning his opening game more than two thirds of the time. That's a pretty steady clip and is an excellent base to build on in 2026.
Woodhouse is now solidly entrenched as a top 32 player, and will likely not be sliding much after this event whatever happens, only defending round one money. Luke is starting to get a bit more going on the big stage, and is also seemingly getting closer to winning a first senior event, being (I believe) the only seed not to have one to their name after Wattimena picked one up finally earlier in the season. On the floor, Woodhouse made two finals, both towards the end of the season - in the last Pro Tour event of the year, where he'd come out as an 8-5 loser to rising star Wessel Nijman, and in the penultimate Euro Tour, where Stephen Bunting would prove to be way too strong in an 8-3 reverse. Luke had two further final sessions in Europe and three quarter finals or better on the floor to keep accumulating steadily. On TV, Woodhouse just missed out on a fourth round bye in the UK Open but got there after beating Sebastian Bialecki, but then disappointed against Mensur Suljovic. He was doing alright at Blackpool, getting to the final break level with Ando but not winning a leg afterwards, but he would edge a decider in Leicester, sweep his Grand Slam group (but then lose to Ricky Evans), and then also surprisingly lose to James Hurrell in the PC Finals after getting an opening win. He's trending in the right direction and breaking the title duck I think will help, but he's still leaving some things on the table I feel.
Krcmar is a vastly experienced player who's won world titles in soft tip and is a very dangerous steel tip player as well, returning after a year away, having dropped his tour card at the end of 2024 following a very disappointing season. Boris returns having won the south east Europe qualifier, where probably the most notable name he defeated was Lakeside seed Benjamin Pratnemer, but was pushed all the way by Rosandic in the final, going to a deciding leg where Krcmar opened up with six perfect darts on throw, sealing the deal in eleven darts. This season we've seen him three times on the European Tour - in the first event he knocked out Josh Rock and Michael van Gerwen before losing a scrappy one to Wade, next up he beat Dirk van Duijvenbode then average over a ton in a narrow loss to Luke Humphries, then finally he averaged 100 again in a deciding leg victory against Gian van Veen, only to then lose to Willie O'Connor. Those are an extremely solid set of victories and indicate Krcmar cannot be taken lightly, not that anyone will be doing so. We've not seen a huge amount out of him apart from that - he didn't play the Challenge Tour, the only thing I can see on the WDF side was a modest run in the Korea Open, and while he would have been eligible for seniors events, that didn't stay around for long enough to really see him do anything there either. Still, Boris is one of the most dangerous opponents Luke could have drawn.
Following last year's debut major final, I think many thought Martin Lukeman could possibly push on, threaten to break the top 32, maybe win a Pro Tour or something like that. If anything, things have stalled since then, and Smash's season has been fairly mediocre. On the floor, Lukeman did just enough to make the Players Championship finals, but couldn't really get close to winning a title, with just a singular quarter final all season, and he only made a board final on a dozen occasions. Then, at Minehead, he'd average in the low 80's in winning just a single leg against Bradley Brooks. On the European Tour, he did alright in getting to five events, albeit only picking up wins in two of them, one over Lukas Wenig (where he was an alternate and lucky to be there in the first place), but in the other he did make the quarters - again he was an alternate, but made the most of it with wins over Pratnemer, Heta and Barney, before narrowly losing to eventual champion Gary Anderson. That Slam runners up spot got him a spot back this year, but would not win a match in a fairly tough group, only really pushing youngster Jurjen van der Velde close, while in the UK Open, Martin just scraped over the line in round three against Jim Williams, before being fairly easily beaten by Nathan Aspinall. It's been a tough year, but he's at least not got an awful draw if he can up his form quickly.
Max Hopp is back on the tour after an absence of a couple of years, and has returned solidly enough to book an Ally Pally return for the first time in five years. The former European Tour winner has mainly done things via solid play and steady accumulation, as opposed to being reliant on any big run in any given event. Hopp did not make even a quarter final on the floor, indeed he only won his board on a couple of occasions, but got past his opening opponent on more than twenty occasions, all those grands and fifteen hundred quids adding up to just enough to squeeze into the Players Championship field as the final seed, naturally being given a tough opponent in Gerwyn Price where he couldn't really get much going. Max did make a couple of Euro Tours, losing in the first to Mike de Decker, but beating Luke Woodhouse in the second prior to losing to Jonny Clayton. There's not really much else to talk about - he couldn't get out of his Masters group, and in the UK Open he was really disappointing in not winning a leg against a qualifier, ending with an average in the seventies. We have a rough idea of what we're going to get, and he can up his game in a stage environment and should have some support, and given a draw that's fairly kind, maybe he can pick up what could be a big win come next year's tour card race.
Overall I think this one should be relatively easy to call. Dobey should take it. Can't see him losing a set in round one, and while I think Gilding/Crabtree will be close, Chris is a fair chunk better than either. Woodhouse could easily come unstuck against Krcmar, and the Lukeman/Hopp game could be tight and scrappy, both will be hard to call but I think whoever wins the first should be a solid favourite against whoever wins the second - but be a dog in round three. Winner - Chris Dobey
It's not been a bad year for Price, even if many might think he's a bit off the top players and/or had a quiet season - he really isn't, and hasn't left too much on the table. Looking from the bottom upwards - Gerwyn's floor season was great, grabbing four Pro Tour titles and making another pair of finals, putting together enough money to enter the Players Championship Finals as the number one seed despite missing around a third of the scheduled events. He'd also add a European Tour title up in Kiel, with a pretty tough run of O'Connor, Nijman, Humphries, Dobey and Anderson on the way to the title, adding an additional four quarter finals to that tally. On TV, Gerwyn won one of the World Series tour events and would reach the World Cup final with Jonny Clayton, but wouldn't be able to make a ranked singles final. He did get to two semi finals in the two most recent events and another two quarter finals, and I don't think he's had any really bad losses - Damon Heta in a deciding leg, Connor Scutt (when he was at his peak) in a deciding leg, Josh Rock (who he avenged heavily in the next TV event), Littler in a deciding leg, Gurney in Dortmund maybe, but then Humphries before Littler again in the last two events. Scoring just shy of 95 for the season is easily a top eight level and not even a quarter of a point off top four level, only one player is higher than 95 and we all know who that is. Price has been doing just fine.
Adam Gawlas is a young if inconsistent Czech talent, who makes his second appearance here three years after getting a narrow win over Richie Burnett prior to a straight sets loss to Ryan Searle. Gawlas returns having won the Czech qualifier, breaking the 90 mark in averages in three of his games, including the semi final and final, although he did leave his first round opponent a three darter for the match, so it could have all gone very differently. We've seen bits and pieces of Adam this year, with an acceptable run in the world youth championship, some Development Tour flashes where he reached two finals and by the looks of things will have just about booked himself a UK Open return unless they change the criteria again, some middling runs on the first Challenge Tour weekend (although that was the only one he played) which did get him into one Pro Tour event. But that's about it - he did apparently win a week on the Super Series, but we'd like to have seen a bit more ideally.
Lukas Wenig is going to make his world championship debut in his second year as a tour card holder, and a couple of key breakthroughs have given him a fair chance of being able to hold onto it going into 2026. The first breakthrough was a floor breakthrough, where after a surprising string of 16 first round defeats in 22 events, Wenig ran all the way to a first Pro Tour final, where in a match which would see a new tour winner one way or another, Lukas ran Jermaine Wattimena fairly close but come out on the wrong side of an 8-5 scoreline. Wenig was able to have a bit better run of form after that, getting past the first round more often than he didn't, but had left too much work to do to make Minehead. Lukas did relatively well in getting to six European Tour events, but would only get one win in any of them, that over Niels Zonneveld, and he promptly got whitewashed in the next round. The other big one came more recently on TV. He did of course play the UK Open, pinching a win against a qualifier before just going down to Kim Huybrechts, but the event that mattered was the Grand Slam. Winning through the tour card holder qualifier, Wenig lost his opening game narrowly to Danny Noppert (missing a stack of match darts if I remember rightly), but rebounded with wins over Clayton and Crabtree to win the group, and then make the most of his chance by taking the first knockout win by a single break over compatriot Niko Springer.. Noppert would easily win the rematch in the quarters, but Wenig had already done his job.
Wesley Plaisier is a pretty well known name, having been one of the strongest non-card holders prior to winning one through last years' Challenge Tour and doing notable things in both PDC and non-PDC events. He returns for a second shot here after going out to Peter Wright in the second round last year, and books his spot through the Pro Tour rankings. Wesley made a relatively slow start to the year, not getting a board win on the floor until the 21st event, but there he would make a second best run of the year to the quarter finals (Plaisier has, of course, won one of these previously), bettering that performance in event 30 where he got as far as the semis before falling. Said slow start was also seen in majors with a prelim exit in the Masters and a first round UK Open loss to Cam Crabtree, while the European Tour was pretty slow all year - taking until the seventh event to qualify for one and then waiting until the final event to make a second of the season. Losing to Cameron Menzies in the first round in both saw him nowhere near Dortmund, and while what he did do on the floor was just enough to book a Minehead return, it was only as one of the last few players and a first round opponent of Jermaine Wattimena would be too hard a task this time. A strong player for sure, likely better than Wenig, but maybe Lukas is coming in with a tad more confidence.
Ryan Joyce is another player who's been bouncing just on the fringes of the top 32 for some time, but looks to have solidified a spot there in the last twelve months with more solid play seeing him into all the majors, and some alright play at that level letting him get a little bit more. Joyce had a relatively quiet floor season, with just a semi final and a quarter final to his name meaning he was unable to add to his two previous titles, but did have a very nice European Tour season, getting to the final session in three out of the first five events, including a first final at that level, picking up wins against four TV title winners on the way to the final where he fell short against Nathan Aspinall. It was on the TV though where Joyce made some nice moves, bagging wins over Andrew Gilding and Danny Lauby at the UK Open before being blown away by Luke Humphries, and while he would go out in the first round of both the Matchplay and Grand Prix, both wins were very narrow against top level opponents (and he was defending nothing in terms of ranking money). Joyce would make a quarter final at the European Championship, only losing to the eventual champion, and he'd get past Dave Chisnall at the PC Finals before going out to a rampant Wattimena. Ryan typically plays and gets better results than his stats suggest, so will be one to watch out for.
Owen Bates is in his second year of owning a tour card, and will make a return here after not qualifying last year, but is here after creeping into the last couple of Pro Tour places, although a very strong Development Tour season gave him a backup route should he not have done enough on the senior circuit (as well as his tour card back whatever happens). Bates, he formerly of the best nickname in the sport, had a relatively steady Pro Tour season, getting through his first game half the time, although his form did tail off a bit towards the end of the season. That said, he only managed a pair of board victories in July, so is yet to really make an impression at senior level. Bates did make a pair of Euro Tours, but would lose to Ritchie Edhouse in one and be destroyed by Krzysztof Ratajski, a possible second round opponent, in the other. Owen lost his opening UK Open game narrowly to George Killington, leaving him without much to shout about at senior level, but the Dev Tour was great. A win and a final in the first weekend was added to with a second win in the second weekend, while two more finals would see him finish comfortably third in the rankings behind only Crabtree and Greaves. He's got a lot of potential, and the stats right now aren't bad, but he's still maybe one for the future to some extent.
Krzysztof Ratajski remains one of the more dangerous players on the circuit, so it is perhaps a surprise that we see him outside of the top 32. This appears to be partially down to a slow back end to 2024, and similar to start 2025 - making a couple of early quarter finals on the floor, before going on a seven event first round losing streak. This was ended with a Pro Tour win, beating Dave Chisnall, because why wouldn't it end like that, but Euro Tour problems with failure to qualify for four events, and first round exits in two he did make, left him too far behind even with that Pro Tour win and as a result he missed the Matchplay for the first time since 2018. Results did get a bit better later on in the season, and he did creep back into the field for the Grand Prix, so is heading in the right direction. TV was alright - he beat Chisnall and Cullen at the UK Open before giving Littler somewhat of a test, he comfortably beat Martin Schindler at Leicester before running into Luke Humphries, would draw Humphries again in Dortmund in the first round, then repeated a last sixteen run at Minehead just recently, beating Barney and van Veen before losing by the odd break to Josh Rock. There's still a strong player in there, although probably past his peak.
Alexis Toylo will make a second appearance here, after making a winning debut twelve months ago with a surprise straight sets win against Richard Veenstra, prior to losing three sets to one against, oddly enough, Krzysztof Ratajski, so we get an immediate rematch in this section of the draw. Toylo returns after having finished runner up in the Asian Championship, losing 7-4 in the final to Lourence Ilagan after a pair of last leg deciding wins to get to that stage. He didn't need this however, as he won the Asian Tour anyway, grabbing five victories across the season, weighted towards the back end of the year, so doing things when it mattered to some extent. We didn't see Toylo at the World Cup as the Philippines went with the team of Ilagan and Nebrida, but we would surprisingly see him on TV later in the year at the Grand Slam, with Ilagan withdrawing for health reasons, Alexis got the nod as the runner up in the Asian Championship. There he'd produce a big upset by defeating Stephen Bunting, drawing some criticism for his speed of play (which ought not to bother Ratajski, who's deliberate to some extent himself), but couldn't get a win over either Luke Woodhouse or Martin Schindler and so finished third in the group stage. Feels like he's one of the better Asian players, just that it's a tough draw here.
Can't really look past Gerwyn here. The first two rounds ought to cause few dramas, although I could see Plaisier making him work a bit should Wesley nick his game against Wenig, which I think he'll just about do. Joyce and Ratajski ought to win their openers comfortably enough, then go against each other in one where I think Joyce has the edge, but it's not by much. Price ought to have enough firepower against either of them - I could see Price dropping a set or two, but the match seems like too much of an ask. Winner - Gerwyn Price
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