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Preview of the 2025 World Darts Championship: Six Germans and one Swiss at the start
by Kim Muntinga
Preview of the 2024 World Darts Championship: The Ally Pally will shake
13.12.2023
Translation: machine translated
The new world champion of the World Darts Championship will be crowned on Friday. What is the game mode, who are the favourites and how are the German-speaking participants doing? You can find all the information here.
The mode and the match schedule
The duration of the game gets longer and longer as the tournament progresses. A best-of-seven format awaits the participants in the third and fourth rounds, with the winner having to win five sets in the quarter-finals. There are six sets in the semi-finals and seven sets in the final (best-of-13 sets).
"Bully Boy" Michael Smith will be the defending champion. At the last event, he entered the winners' list for the first time with a 7:4 victory over Michael van Gerwen and even conquered the top of the world rankings. The spectators in London's Alexandra Palace and in front of the television experienced what was probably the best leg of all time. But watch it again for yourself:
At this World Championship, the English "Bully Boy" will start the tournament as the #1 seed on the very first day. In the following overview you can see when which player will play in one of the first two rounds in the pre-Christmas period:
The favourites
The top favourite for the title is clearly "Cool Hand Luke" Humphries after his outstanding performances in recent months. The current world number three has won three of the last four major tournaments, including the last two. However, the Englishman Humphries has never made it past the quarter-finals at the World Championships.
The second favourite is three-time world champion and last year's finalist Michael van Gerwen. The Dutchman won two major tournaments this year, the Premier League and the World Series Finals. He is always a force to be reckoned with at the World Championships.
The extended group of favourites
The players from the DACH region
For the first time in the history of the World Darts Championship, five German players will be competing. They will be joined by an Austrian
The "German Giant" Gabriel Clemens caused a minor sensation last year when he made it to the semi-finals but was beaten by eventual winner Michael Smith. Clemens is currently the highest-ranked German darts player in the world rankings in 22nd place. As a seeded player, he will therefore only start in the second round, but could have a tough draw there with Dutch shooting star Gian van Veen.
"The Wall" Martin Schindler will also start the tournament as a seeded player and currently 26th in the world rankings. He reached the quarter-finals at the World Grand Prix in October. He could face Fallon Sherrock, one of two women, in the second round.
This will be the third World Championship for Cologne youngster Florian Hempel. Two years ago, he reached the third round after defeating Martin Schindler and Dimitri van den Bergh. Before his darts career, Hempel was a handball goalkeeper for Dessau-Roßlauer HV in the 2nd Bundesliga. The fifth German player in the squad is Dragutin Horvat, who qualified for the World Championship via the German Super League. This is his second participation after 2017.
The field of players from German-speaking countries is completed by Austrian Rusty-Jake Rodriguez. Having grown up in a darts family, he is currently ranked 89th in the world and is one of the best Austrian darts players alongside his brother Rowby-John Rodriguez (48th in the rankings) and his mentor Mensur Suljovic (50th).
The young guns
Aged 22, Josh "Rocky" Rock from Northern Ireland is still one of the young guns, but could also be counted among the favourites. He is now number 23 in the world rankings and has established himself on the tour. He has reached three Pro Tour finals this year, but lost all three. His best Major result came in November at the Grand Slam of Darts when he reached the quarter-finals. I wouldn't be surprised if he could cause a furore at this World Championship.
And this Luke Littler is regarded as one of the absolute top talents in the industry. At his young age, Littler has already won several titles on the PDC Development Tour this year - and hit a 9-darter in the process. It will be exciting to see what Littler can achieve at the World Championship at the age of 16.
And with this preview, I'm happy to say: Game on!
Who do you think is the favourite to win the title? Are you watching the World Darts Championship? Let me know in the comments.
Cover photo: PDC
My interests are varied, I just like to enjoy life. Always on the lookout for news about darts, gaming, films and series.
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