Former champions Peter Wright and Gerwyn Price are out of the Darts World Cup. In the semi-finals, among others, are super talent Littler and top star van Gerwen.
Peter Wright’s dream of a third title at the PDC Darts World Championship has shattered. The Scot lost in London on New Year’s Day Alexandra Palace his quarter-final against the Englishman Stephen Bunting 2:5. Wright showed an unusual spread in the first four sets and was 0:4 behind. Only in the fifth and sixth sets did he show the class that made him PDC world champion in 2020 and 2022.
The 54-year-old Wright had slipped to 17th place in the world rankings, but caused a surprise in the World Cup round of 16 when he eliminated defending champion Luke Humphries.
Bunting is now in the World Cup semi-finals for the second time after 2021. The 39-year-old proved that he was ready for the title in February 2024 when he won his first majortitle at the PDC Michael van Gerwen was able to defeat in the final.
Littler defeats Aspinall
In the semi-finals he will face his compatriot Luke Littler. The 17-year-old showed his best tournament performance to date in his 5-2 quarter-final win against Nathan Aspinall, also from England. After a strong season, Littler is considered the top favorite and, after a few mixed performances, now seems to be getting going in time.
Van Gerwen on course, Rydz with a class performance
Michael van Gerwen is in the World Cup semi-finals for the ninth time overall; the Dutchman defeated Callan Rydz (England) 5-3. In the high-class match there were a total of 31 shots with 180 points.
Rydz, who played an outstanding tournament last year and defeated several seeded professionals in Dimitri van den Bergh (Belgium) and Martin Schindler (Germany), even won more legs than his rival.
“Mighty Mike“, as the 35-year-old van Gerwen is called, was scheduled for the afternoon session for the first time in over eleven years and 53 World Cup matches. With the score at 2-2, Rydz was close to taking the lead. But the Englishman repeatedly missed great chances on the double fields.
Price succumbs to Dobey
Former world champion Gerwyn Price has to give up hope of his second World Cup triumph in 2025. Despite a 2-0 set lead, the Welshman was eliminated 3-5 in the quarter-finals against Englishman Chris Dobey – so the 39-year-old is still waiting for his second semi-final appearance at the highlight of the season. So far, Price has only reached the round of the last four in his 2021 World Cup victory.
Price got off to a strong start on Wednesday afternoon, but after winning sets he had big problems on the doubles courts. In the end, his checkout rate was 26.79 percent – a very weak value.
Dobey, who reached the semi-finals of a World Cup for the first time and now has a good chance of taking part in the Premier League owns, only trembled in the seventh set when he missed five match darts. In the eighth round he laid the foundation for success with an early break and now meets van Gerwen.