Another busy weekend in the world of darts.
The WDF held the Romanian Open and Classic competitions, with the winners of the Open events booking a place at the WDF World Championships. In the Netherlands, the PDC World Series continued, with the Dutch Masters. And in Dubai, the PDC Asian Tour began, with events 1-4.
Dutch Masters World Series
The World Series of Darts came to the Netherlands, which is, perhaps,the hardest of the World Series events, (except the finals of course). The qualifying players are all top PDC players, so there are no easy first round matches. And this proved to be the case. Kevin Doets cruised past Nathan Aspinall 6-1 and Raymond van Barneveld beat Chris Dobey 6-5, with an incredible 148 checkout, to drive the local fans into a frenzy. Most impressively was Jermaine Wattimena, who beat Luke Humphries 6-3, with relative ease. He looked relentless throughout. Gian van Veen can feel a little hard done by, when losing 6-5 to Stephen Bunting, after fighting back from 5-2 down and hitting a 105+ average.
However the Dutch players' luck ran out in the quarter finals, with all four players losing to their British counterparts. Luke Littler wouldn't let Michael van Gerwen gain revenge in a World Championship rematch, as he won 6-5. Price and Bunting also came through, alongside Rob Cross, who up to this point, remained under the radar.
Cross came to life in the semi final by winning quite comfortably against Price 7-3. He set up a final against the Bahrain Masters winner Bunting, who is the form player at the moment.
In the final Cross raced to a 5-2 lead, only for Bunting to pull it back to 5-5. It looked like Bunting might be taking back to back finals, however Cross kicked on and took the next 3 legs in succession to claim the title, with a 101+ average. Cross may have been overlooked after his defeat in the Bahrain Masters by Paolo Nebrida, but that obviuosly galvanised him and he showed why he is still one of the top players in the world.
PDC Asian Tour 1-4
The Asian Tour kicked off this weekend, with the first four events of the season. Players from all around Asia took part in Dubai. Alexis Toylo was the number one ranked player, but there was plenty of talent on offer, including the Singapore player, Paul Lim, who at 71, is still a magnificent player.
In event 1, the main contenders were making their way through. One name, in particular was interesting - Mikuru Suzuki. This seems like a sensible route for her to take, as many of her tournaments, within the Women's Series, involves a lot of cost and travel. Whether she concentrates on one tour, or both, remains to be seen, but this may be a good way to get a PDC Championship spot, whilst improving her game. It could be her diary was free, so I guess we wait and see how the season pans out.
Paul Lim and Paolo Nebrida made the quarter finals, but could go no further. Alexis Toylo was proving his worth and sailed into the semi final, where he would meet Suzuki. The other semi final saw Tomoya Goto, another main contender, play Alain Abiabi. Goto beat AbiAbi 5-0, but will be interesting to see how AbiAbi gets on during the season. Toylo had a tougher match against Suzuki which went all the way, before he triumphed 5-4. The final saw Toylo take the first event, winning 5-3, but both players will be challenging for the top no doubt.
Event 2 was all about Lourence Ilagan. After an average first event, where he lost in the last 16, Ilagan started to assert himself. Alexis Toylo couldn't make it two event victories in a row, after losing to Ryuta Anihara in the last 16. Anihara was playing extremely well. Nitin Kumar, in turn, beat a below average Anihara and secured his place in the semi final. Kumar played at the PDC World Championships in 2025, showing he definitely has the ability to compete. Ilagan had his hardest game of the event in beating Yuta Hayashi 5-2. They were joined by the eye-catching Taiwanese player, Man Lok Lee and Filipino, Jasper Natividad.
Ilagan made short work of Natividad, with a 5-0 whitewash, and Lee was also convincing , as he beat Kumar 5-1. So to the final, which promised to be a close contest. However, Ilagan was unstoppable, as he won 5-1, with an impressive 100+ average. In fact Ilagan lost only 4 legs all event. He was certainly putting his stamp on the event, and his rivals had something to think about.
The third event was another events where the 'big' names were playing well. Into the quarter finals were Ilagan, Toylo, Lim, Nebrida and Goto. The dangerous Royden Lam was also showing form. Lam has experience at the PDC World Championship and World Cup, so was certainly a contender.
Lam beat the impressive Arihara to progress, while Toylo beat Paul Lim. Ilagan was too much for the inexperienced An Shen Lu from Chinese Taipei, winning 4-1. and the semi final was completed by Paolo Nebrida, who won a high quality match against Goto 4-1.
In won of the matches of the weekend, Nebrida faced Toylo. Toylo went 3-1 ahead, but was pinned back to 3-3. Toylo then went 4-3 ahead, but Nebrida dug in and won the next 2 legs, to make the final. In the second semi final, Ilagan was too strong for Lam and ran away with a 5-2 victory. The final would be tough for Ilagan, as the in-form Nebrida was playing well. Ilagan, however was in poweful scoring mode, similar to event 2. He hit a 100+ average to beat Nebrida 5-2, who just couldn't raise his game enough.
The final event saw some of the bigger names falter, as perhaps, fatigue was kicking in. However that would be a bad excuse, as 71 year old Paul Lim was still playing at the top of his game. He entered the quarter final, alongside Paolo Nebrida and Royden Lam, Yoshihisa Baba had been playing well all weekend, without quite breaking through. Maybe this was his event? Lim and Nebrida came through their quarter final matches, with 4-1 victories each. The lesser known Dolreich Tongcopanon and Alvin Delgado made the other semi final spots. Lim played Nebrida in a very one sided match. Nebrida could never get going and lost 5-1. In the other semi final, Tongcopanon was a 5-3 winner, although neither player were at their best.
The final saw Lim as the favourite against his more inexperienced opponent. This seemed to weigh a little on Tongcopanon, as he didn't play his best. Lim won through 5-3. However Tongcopanon can gain a lot from this result and will be good to see how he plays in the next events. For Lim, he defies age each time he steps onto the oche. A real inspiration and still and incredibly talented player.
Romanian Darts Open and Classic
Like the previous week's Las Vegas Open, the winner of the Men's and Women's events would get an automatic spot at the WDF World Championships. The Classic titles, are still prestigious and would certainly help with ranking points.
Romanian Open - Men's
There was a definite international feel to the Men's quarter finals, with 5 countries represented. Belgium had 3 representatives with Brian Raman, Francois Schweyen and Sybren Gijbels. Raman and Schweyen were to progress, winning 4-2 and 4-1 respectively. Welsh player, David Davies, always a big scorer, beat Romania's last hope in the event, Daniel Racoveneau 4-2. The last semi final spot was taken by Greek player, and former PDC Tour card holder, John Michael who beat Gijbels 4-1, with a 96+ average.
Raman then had to face his compatriot, Schweyen, with both players playing well of late.However Raman was too good and won the match 4-1. In the other semi-final, Davies was unable to find his usual scoring power and lost to Michael 4-1. The final seemed like an even enough affair and started off that way, with the score going to 2-2. However Raman proved too good and won the next 3 legs for a 5-2 victory. Raman now takes his place at the WDF World Championship, later this year.
Romanian Open - Women's
Several big names made their way through to the latter stages. There were also two young British players making their way through too, which is encouraging for the Women's game.
Lerena Rietbergen had an easy time in her quarter final, beating a below par Kirsty Hutchinson 4-0. Hutchinson had looked good in the earlier rounds, but just couldn't get going. Kirsi Viinikainen had a similar problem against Aileen de Graaf, and faltered to a 4-1 defeat. In a battle of the English players, Deta Hedman continued her dominant form of late by winning 4-0 against former Women's Series event winner, Natalie Gilbert. The last quarter final, saw the two English 18 year olds, Hannah Meek and Amy Evans play. Although neither played particularly well, it was Evans that came through, winning 4-2.It's exciting to see more young players making the latter stages of events. If they play on the Women's Series this year, these will be two to follow.
In the semi final, both games were won easily. Hedman, with all her experience, was just too good for Evans, as she won 4-0. The other semi final saw de Graaf win a little easier than expected over Rietbergen, with a 4-1 victory.
So it was the experienced and perennial title winners to play the final. And the game was as close as expected. De Graaf flew into a 4-1 lead, but Hedman, tenacious as ever, came back to make it 4-4. De Graaf, however, showed some class, with an 18 dart deciding leg to take the title and her place at the WDF Women's World Championship. The match was certainly very close, as both players had nearly identical averages .
Romanian Classic -Men's
Sweden's Johan Engstrom made his second quarter final of the weekend, and the experienced trio of Aaron Turner, David Pallett and Marko Kantele . Pallett, in particular, has been playing well of late. The other quarter finalists, were less known, and maybe names to add to the watch list. Brandon Stowe showed his class with a 4-0 victory over Aaron Turner, and Raymond van den Ende, was equally impressive in beating Kantele 4-1. David Pallett ensured his path to the semi final, with a 108+ average and 4-1 win over Engstrom, and Paul Croucher beat Jack Hill
Pallett then won through to the final with a 4-2 victory over van den Ende. Pallett, probably had too much experience, and this gave him that edge. Stowe beat Croucher by the same margin in the other semi final, but Croucher should take heart from this performance.
In the final, again it was Pallett's experience that shone through. Although both players had similar averages, Pallett was hitting more crucial darts at crucial times. This earned him a 5-3 victory. Pallett will hopefully continue this good form and we may see him at the top end of the rankings this year, Stowe can definitely gain a lot of confidence from making the final, and I look forward to watching his next tournament
Romanian Classic - Women's
