Live Darts on Monday | World Matchplay 2025 Day Three Preview and Order of Play
The first round action draws to a close at the 2025 World Matchplay on Monday with a trio of former World Champions taking to the Winter Gardens stage.
A dramatic opening weekend in Blackpool saw no fewer than six seeds crash out of the competition and five Dutchmen advance to the Last 16.
One further Dutch representative is guaranteed in the second round as the country’s two most decorated darters go head-to-head in the pick of Monday’s fixtures.
Three-time World Matchplay champion Michael van Gerwen takes on 2010 runner-up Raymond van Barneveld in the latest chapter of their iconic rivalry.
Van Gerwen lifted this trophy in 2015, 2016 and 2022 and fell short of adding to that tally when he was denied by Luke Humphries in last year’s final.
The world number three has not picked up a major televised ranking title since the 2022 Players Championship Finals but did claim the German Darts Grand Prix title back in April with a nine-darter along the way.
Van Gerwen missed out on a place in the Premier League play-offs the following month before taking a five-week break for personal reasons, but will be determined to recapture his best form in Blackpool and extend Van Barneveld’s miserable recent record.
Barney, who landed a nine-darter en route to the final 15 years ago, has suffered successive first round defeats and has to go back to 2018 for his last win on this stage.
The 58-year-old remains on the periphery of the world’s top 32 but has struggled for results this year, failing to surpass the Last 16 in nine European Tour events and reaching just one Players Championship quarter-final.
Another fixture with history sees 2022 World Matchplay finalist Gerwyn Price take on newly-crowned World Cup of Darts winner Daryl Gurney.
The pair met in the final of the World Cup in Frankfurt last month as Northern Ireland edged out Wales 10-9 to clinch the title for the first time.
They also collided at this stage of the World Matchplay 12 months ago, with Price running out a comfortable 10-4 winner with a 99.4 average.
Price returns to Blackpool in a blistering vein of form having claimed the Baltic Sea Darts Open title last weekend to follow on from the Poland Darts Masters crown a week earlier.
Seeded number 11, Price finds himself in the bottom half of the draw alongside Luke Littler and will be aiming to put down a marker and pick up from where he left off in Kiel.
Gurney, meanwhile, returns for his tenth consecutive World Matchplay appearance, having notably reached the semi-finals in 2017 and 2019.
The world number 25 has reached a quarter-final on both the ProTour and European Tour this season and was in inspired form alongside Josh Rock during their memorable World Cup triumph a month ago.
Rock is hoping to make it third time lucky in Blackpool as he bids to avert a hat-trick of first round exits, but faces a formidable opener against 14th seed Ross Smith.
Rock has been one of the most consistently clinical players on the tour in 2025, picking up a Players Championship title in April as well as a further final appearance and two semi-final runs on the European Tour.
Provisionally back in the world’s top 16, Rock will be determined to transfer that blistering form onto the big stage as he bids to avenge last year’s 10-4 defeat at the hands of Smith in Round One.
Smith went on to defeat Gerwyn Price before losing out to James Wade in the quarter-finals, marking his best run in Blackpool to date.
The former European Champion finished runner-up in April’s Austrian Darts Open and added a fifth Players Championship title to his collection a month later.
The opening match of the night sees Premier League star Chris Dobey take on German ace Ricardo Pietreczko.
World Championship semi-finalist Dobey returns as the sixth seed, having racked up a brace of ProTour titles this year, as well as a timely run to the semi-finals of last weekend’s Baltic Sea Darts Open.
Pietreczko, the 2023 German Championship winner, was beaten on debut by Luke Humphries here last year and has reached a quarter-final on both the ProTour and European Tour in 2025, as well as partnering Martin Schindler to a famous win over England’s Luke Littler and Humphries on home soil at the World Cup.
The action gets under way from 7pm BST, with First Round matches to be contested over the best of 19 legs.
Matches will be extended if necessary for a maximum of six extra legs before a sudden death leg is required. For example, in a first to ten First Round match, if the score reaches 12-12 then the 25th leg will be the sudden death decider.
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Betfred World Matchplay 2025 Day Three Schedule
Monday July 21
First Round
7pm-11pm
Chris Dobey v Ricardo Pietreczko
Gerwyn Price v Daryl Gurney
Michael van Gerwen v Raymond van Barneveld
Ross Smith v Josh Rock
