The PDC World Championship 2026/2025
The World Championship is already history, and tomorrow the PDC Qualifying School kicks off a new darts year.
At 20 days, the PDC World Championship was a full four days longer than last year's, and it also had more participants and we saw even more matches - it was so long that I can't even remember the first few matches.
I do remember, though, that Luke Littler was at the oche on the first day of the tournament and won his match against Darius Labanauskas just as decisively as he won yesterday's World Championship final against Gian van Veen, although he did drop a set in that final. But then again, the final was considerably longer, with seven sets...
In between were five more almost equally one-sided and decisive matches - only against Rob Cross in the fourth round did Littler face a slightly tougher challenge. Littler is an outstanding player and he also has far better timing than many others. However, this also means that he's a bit of a one-man show during his matches, and the matches themselves aren't the kind of outstanding or exciting games that spectators usually want to see. Littler is only 18 years old, and the hype surrounding him is incredible. What will happen to him when he gets older?
Of course, there were also plenty of surprises at this World Championship, and quite a few truly outstanding matches.
The biggest surprise of the World Championship was certainly the performance of Justin Hood, whom every darts fan should know by now, and who, thanks to the World Championship, has come a good deal closer to his dream of opening a Chinese restaurant. James Hurrell and the Swede Andreas Harrysson are also definitely much more well-known after the World Championship than before.
Many of the top players were eliminated from the World Championship quite early - it started on the second day with Ross Smith and continued, especially in the second round, with Dirk van Duijvenbode, Dave Chisnall, Michael Smith, Chris Dobey, Ryan Joyce, Joe Cullen, Gerwyn Price, Wessel Nijman, James Wade, Daryl Gurney, and Danny Noppert. Stephen Bunting, Martin Schindler, Damon Heta, Jermaine Wattimena, and Nathan Aspinall, among others, were knocked out in the third round.
I, for one, hadn't necessarily expected that alongside Justin Hood Ryan Searle, Gary Anderson, Krzysztof Ratajski, and Jonny Clayton would be among those at the oche in the quarterfinals. Searle and Ratajski, and especially Gary Anderson, were something of a "surprise player," and Anderson was involved in some of the World Championship's standout matches. This started in the first round against Adam Hunt; I can't remember Hunt ever playing so well before. It continued with his victory over Jermaine Wattimena and culminated in the incredible semi-final against Gian van Veen, which for me was one of the best matches of the World Championship, perhaps even the best match of the tournament. The match between Danny Noppert and Justin Hood was also one of the standouts, as was the match between Luke Humphries and Gabriel Clemens.
Overall, however, the German players didn't perform particularly well. Although four Germans made it to the third round, more than ever before, all four were eliminated there. The five women who qualified for the World Championship also failed to impress, although it must be mentioned that all five were facing seeded players who were far superior to them in terms of experience on the Alexandra Palace stage.
In addition, there was plenty of drama thanks to Cameron Menzies and Mensur Suljovic. Menzies, at least, only hurt himself, while Suljovic once again overwhelmed his second-round opponent, Joe Cullen, with his style of play. Quite frankly, the argument that "that's just how he plays" is simply wrong. He only plays that way when he wants to (and can) achieve something against his opponent. Against Luke Littler, it was a completely different story - so he can actually play different. However, I must say that I found his behavior somewhat strange even in the match against David Cameron. After the match, he let himself be celebrated by some spectators (I don't even know if they were actually his fans) for minutes, and I thought he might never leave the stage. I've actually never seen that from another player before.
Cameron Menzies, on the other hand, is clearly having mental problems - that's obviously very difficult, and it's simply unacceptable to be completely out of control on stage. I still remember the first time I saw him at a PDC tournament. Back then, he played in a group match at the Grand Slam against Berry van Peer, who was struggling badly with dartitis at the time. Menzies felt incredibly sorry for him and was so busy trying to cheer van Peer up that he ended up losing the match.
I won't soon forget the afternoon when first Menzies and then Suljovic played - it was certainly the strangest afternoon session I've ever experienced.
Besides that, I have a whole host of vivid images in my mind when I think back to my days at this year's World Championship - Ricky Evans' walk-on, David Munyua's dance on stage, the very pale - in every sense of the word - Dimitri van den Bergh, who will hopefully overcome his problems someday, Peter Wright, who only managed to get rid of his Grinch gloves with the help of Noa-Lynn van Leuven, the very nostalgic match between Ian White and Mervyn King, and of course Paul Lim, who played such a convincing first-round match while, in the background on stage, Jeffrey de Graaf was slowly but surely despairing.
And of course, there were also the wasps, which were on stage almost every day, landing on some players' shirts, buzzing around Gabriel Clemens during his interview, and even causing irritation for Luke Littler in yesterday's final - even the world number one is powerless against them.
At 20 days, the PDC World Championship was a full four days longer than last year's, and it also had more participants and we saw even more matches - it was so long that I can't even remember the first few matches.
I do remember, though, that Luke Littler was at the oche on the first day of the tournament and won his match against Darius Labanauskas just as decisively as he won yesterday's World Championship final against Gian van Veen, although he did drop a set in that final. But then again, the final was considerably longer, with seven sets...
In between were five more almost equally one-sided and decisive matches - only against Rob Cross in the fourth round did Littler face a slightly tougher challenge. Littler is an outstanding player and he also has far better timing than many others. However, this also means that he's a bit of a one-man show during his matches, and the matches themselves aren't the kind of outstanding or exciting games that spectators usually want to see. Littler is only 18 years old, and the hype surrounding him is incredible. What will happen to him when he gets older?
Of course, there were also plenty of surprises at this World Championship, and quite a few truly outstanding matches.
The biggest surprise of the World Championship was certainly the performance of Justin Hood, whom every darts fan should know by now, and who, thanks to the World Championship, has come a good deal closer to his dream of opening a Chinese restaurant. James Hurrell and the Swede Andreas Harrysson are also definitely much more well-known after the World Championship than before.
Many of the top players were eliminated from the World Championship quite early - it started on the second day with Ross Smith and continued, especially in the second round, with Dirk van Duijvenbode, Dave Chisnall, Michael Smith, Chris Dobey, Ryan Joyce, Joe Cullen, Gerwyn Price, Wessel Nijman, James Wade, Daryl Gurney, and Danny Noppert. Stephen Bunting, Martin Schindler, Damon Heta, Jermaine Wattimena, and Nathan Aspinall, among others, were knocked out in the third round.
I, for one, hadn't necessarily expected that alongside Justin Hood Ryan Searle, Gary Anderson, Krzysztof Ratajski, and Jonny Clayton would be among those at the oche in the quarterfinals. Searle and Ratajski, and especially Gary Anderson, were something of a "surprise player," and Anderson was involved in some of the World Championship's standout matches. This started in the first round against Adam Hunt; I can't remember Hunt ever playing so well before. It continued with his victory over Jermaine Wattimena and culminated in the incredible semi-final against Gian van Veen, which for me was one of the best matches of the World Championship, perhaps even the best match of the tournament. The match between Danny Noppert and Justin Hood was also one of the standouts, as was the match between Luke Humphries and Gabriel Clemens.
Overall, however, the German players didn't perform particularly well. Although four Germans made it to the third round, more than ever before, all four were eliminated there. The five women who qualified for the World Championship also failed to impress, although it must be mentioned that all five were facing seeded players who were far superior to them in terms of experience on the Alexandra Palace stage.
In addition, there was plenty of drama thanks to Cameron Menzies and Mensur Suljovic. Menzies, at least, only hurt himself, while Suljovic once again overwhelmed his second-round opponent, Joe Cullen, with his style of play. Quite frankly, the argument that "that's just how he plays" is simply wrong. He only plays that way when he wants to (and can) achieve something against his opponent. Against Luke Littler, it was a completely different story - so he can actually play different. However, I must say that I found his behavior somewhat strange even in the match against David Cameron. After the match, he let himself be celebrated by some spectators (I don't even know if they were actually his fans) for minutes, and I thought he might never leave the stage. I've actually never seen that from another player before.
Cameron Menzies, on the other hand, is clearly having mental problems - that's obviously very difficult, and it's simply unacceptable to be completely out of control on stage. I still remember the first time I saw him at a PDC tournament. Back then, he played in a group match at the Grand Slam against Berry van Peer, who was struggling badly with dartitis at the time. Menzies felt incredibly sorry for him and was so busy trying to cheer van Peer up that he ended up losing the match.
I won't soon forget the afternoon when first Menzies and then Suljovic played - it was certainly the strangest afternoon session I've ever experienced.
Besides that, I have a whole host of vivid images in my mind when I think back to my days at this year's World Championship - Ricky Evans' walk-on, David Munyua's dance on stage, the very pale - in every sense of the word - Dimitri van den Bergh, who will hopefully overcome his problems someday, Peter Wright, who only managed to get rid of his Grinch gloves with the help of Noa-Lynn van Leuven, the very nostalgic match between Ian White and Mervyn King, and of course Paul Lim, who played such a convincing first-round match while, in the background on stage, Jeffrey de Graaf was slowly but surely despairing.
And of course, there were also the wasps, which were on stage almost every day, landing on some players' shirts, buzzing around Gabriel Clemens during his interview, and even causing irritation for Luke Littler in yesterday's final - even the world number one is powerless against them.