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Live Darts on Saturday | World Darts Championship 2024/25 Day Seven Preview and Order of Play

Live Darts on Friday | World Darts Championship 2024/25 Day Six Preview and Order of Play

Jamie Shaw in World Darts Championship 20 Dec 2024

Michael van Gerwen takes to the stage (Photo by PDC)

Two former World Champions begin their campaigns on another action-packed day of festive arrows at Alexandra Palace on Friday.

Dutch icon Michael van Gerwen commences his quest for a fourth World Championship title with a showdown against James Hurrell in the evening session.

Van Gerwen has competed in all 17 stagings of the World Championship since its move to Ally Pally and captured the Sid Waddell Trophy in 2014, 2017 and 2019.

A winner of more than 150 titles worldwide, including a staggering 47 majors, MVG has enjoyed more success than any other player in this competition and is vying to restore his former glories.

The number three seed finished runner-up in this year’s Masters and World Matchplay, while claiming the Dutch Masters and Hungarian Trophy titles, as well as two Players Championships.

He has not lost his opening match at Ally Pally since the 2010/11 event and has reached the final in six of his last 12 World Championship appearances.

Former Challenge Tour event winner Hurrell is gearing up for the most important match of his career, having coasted to a straight sets victory over Canada’s Jim Long on his debut on Tuesday.

Reigning Masters champion Stephen Bunting begins his pursuit of a first PDC world title with a clash against German debutant Kai Gotthardt.

Bunting, Lakeside Champion in 2014 and a semi-finalist at Ally Pally in 2021, claimed The Masters title in January and has finished runner-up in a staggering six Players Championship events this season.

The St Helens star has also reached two European Tour semi-finals, but has not made it beyond the Second Round stage in his last five televised ranking tournament appearances.

Gotthardt won the PDC Europe Super League in dramatic fashion to seal a dream debut in this event and pulled off a 3-1 win over Alan Soutar on opening weekend despite snapping the barrel of his dart mid-match.

Friday’s First Round action includes a tie between young Dutch sensation Wessel Nijman and South Africa’s Cameron Carolissen.

Nijman, 24, has racked up an emphatic seven Development Tour titles this year and picked up his first senior ranking title on the ProTour in October.

He made an eye-catching debut at the Grand Slam a month later, bowing out in the Group Stage despite a tournament average in excess of 107.

Carolissen returns for a first World Championship appearance since 2021, when he was beaten 3-1 by Danny Noppert in the Last 64, after winning a nail-biting final in the African Qualifier.

An all-Irish clash in the evening session sees William O’Connor take on Dylan Slevin for the right to face Dimitri van den Bergh in Round Two.

O’Connor has appeared in every World Championship since 2017/18, twice reaching the Third Round, and is a former World Cup of Darts runner-up and UK Open semi-finalist.

Slevin came through the last-chance Tour Card holder qualifier three weeks ago to seal a second successive Ally Pally appearance, having lost out 3-1 to Florian Hempel on debut 12 months ago.

Multiple PDC ranking event winner Ian White faces Philippines’ qualifier Sandro Eric Sosing in the afternoon session.

White, a three-time European Tour event winner and former major semi-finalist, has enjoyed a welcome resurgence in 2024, reaching a Players Championship quarter-final and thrashing Van Gerwen 6-1 in the First Round of the recent Players Championship Finals with a 102.7 average.

Sosing finished runner-up in the PDC Asian Championship to clinch a second successive qualification, and also sealed a maiden Asian Tour title back in March.

Two former Challenge Tour event winners collide in the afternoon’s opener as Stephen Burton meets Alexander Merkx.

Burton is back at Ally Pally for the first time since making his debut six years ago, having reached a ProTour semi-final in 2024, while also defeating James Wade in the opening round of the Players Championship Finals.

Merkx reached the Third Round of last year’s WDF World Championship and makes his debut on the sport’s greatest stage after finishing fourth in this year’s Challenge Tour Order of Merit.

Grand Slam semi-finalist Mickey Mansell looks to continue his terrific resurgence when he takes on Japan’s Tomoya Goto.

Mansell had never made it beyond the Last 16 stage of a televised ranking event prior to last month’s visit to Wolverhampton, but produced a series of stunning displays to reach the Last Four – where was eventually denied by Martin Lukeman.

Mansell is making his ninth World Championship appearance and is out to reach Round Two for the fourth consecutive time of asking.

World Cup star Goto won the inaugural Japan Tour finals in September to secure a second successive Ally Pally appearance, having pulled off a shock win over Ian White on debut last year.

German ace Florian Hempel looks to maintain his perfect record in the First Round at Ally Pally when he takes on Tour Card Holder qualifier Jeffrey De Zwaan.

Hempel has reached the Third Round in two of his previous three World Championship appearances, twice defeating Dimitri van den Bergh, and defeated Peter Wright in the recent Players Championship Finals.

Former World Matchplay semi-finalist De Zwaan returns to Ally Pally for the first time in four years after coming through the Tour Card Holder qualifier and is battling to save his Tour Card, requiring two wins in order to end the season in the world’s top 64.

The action gets under way from 12.30pm GMT, with First Round and Second Round matches to be contested over the best five sets, best of five legs per set.

The tie break rule does not apply to First Round matches, meaning the fifth leg of a deciding set would be sudden death, while the final set in matches from Round Two onwards must be won by two clear legs, unless the score reaches 5-5, in which case a sudden death leg will be played.

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World Darts Championship 2024/25 Day Six Schedule

Friday December 20

Afternoon Session (12.30pm-5pm)
Stephen Burton v Alexander Merkx (R1)
Wessel Nijman v Cameron Carolissen (R1)
Ian White v Sandro Eric Sosing (R1)
Stephen Bunting v Kai Gotthardt (R2)

Evening Session (7pm-11pm)
Mickey Mansell v Tomoya Goto (R1)
Florian Hempel v Jeffrey De Zwaan (R1)
William O’Connor v Dylan Slevin (R1)
Michael van Gerwen v James Hurrell (R2)

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