Live Darts on Thursday | World Grand Prix 2025 Day Four Preview and Order of Play
The second round action continues at the 2025 World Grand Prix in Leicester on Thursday as a host of star names look to maintain their title tilt.
Four previous winners of this illustrious title retain to the Mattioli Arena on Day Four as they vie to complete the quarter-final line-up.
One of the stand-out ties of the evening sees reigning champion Mike De Decker resume the defence of his title with a showdown against reigning World Champion Luke Littler.
De Decker is bidding to become only the third player in the 28-year history of the World Grand Prix to successfully retain the title, but faces a formidable test at only the second hurdle.
The Belgian number one survived an early scare as he recovered from a set down to edge out Peter Wright on Tuesday and is now seeking to end a fruitless head-to-head record against Littler.
Littler has won all six of their previous encounters, including this year’s Belgian Open and Australian Masters finals, and put down an immediate marker with a jaw-dropping first round display.
The world number two, who has added the UK Open and World Matchplay to his major title tally this season, defied a tournament record average of 106.47 from Gian van Veen to prevail in straight sets with a 105.6 average of his own in a match lasting little over ten minutes.
Another box office battle sees 2020 champion Gerwyn Price take on World Cup winner Josh Rock in a repeat of their World Matchplay epic in July.
Rock triumphed 16-11 at the Winter Gardens age to reach the semi-finals – where he was eventually denied by Littler 17-14 despite averaging 104 for the second successive match.
Since then, the Northern Irishman has reached two European Tour finals and a Players Championship final at this very venue as recently as last Wednesday.
Rock recovered from a set down to avenge last year’s first round defeat to Ryan Joyce and register his first win in this event at the third time of asking.
Price boasts a prolific record in the double-start major, having reached at least the semi-final stage in four of his last five World Grand Prix appearances.
Champion behind closed doors five years ago and runner-up in 2021 and 2023, the Welshman also recovered from a set down to deny Ryan Searle in his opener and is bidding to add to his four Players Championship titles this year, as well as the Baltic Sea Darts Open and Poland Masters.
Jonny Clayton, the 2021 champion, resumes his quest for a second Grand Prix title with a tie against recent European Tour event finalist Luke Woodhouse.
Clayton has enjoyed a fine season in front of the TV cameras, finishing runner-up at the World Masters and World Cup and reaching the semi-finals of both the UK Open and World Matchplay.
Dutch Darts Championship winner and a ProTour event winner in Rosmalen, the Welshman cruised past Andrew Gilding in straight sets to get off and running on Tuesday.
Woodhouse enjoyed a superb run to the final of the recent Swiss Darts Trophy and produced a miraculous revival in a last-leg decider to deny Damon Heta in round one in Leicester, having missed his first seven darts at starting doubles before landing two maximums.
Dirk van Duijvenbode, runner-up in 2020, faces off against 2017 champion Daryl Gurney.
Van Duijvenbode’s first major final to date came at this event behind closed doors, losing out to Price, but he had failed to win a match in three subsequent appearances prior to Tuesday’s commanding straight sets win over six-time champion Michael van Gerwen.
Gurney famously claimed his first major title in Dublin and went on to add the Players Championship Finals a year later, before partnering Rock to World Cup glory this summer.
The Northern Irishman took advantage of an out of sorts Ross Smith to seal his spot in the second round for the third time in four years.
The action gets under way from 7pm BST, with second round matches to be contested over the best of five sets.
All sets are the best of five legs and there will be no tie break in any set. All legs must begin and end with a double, meaning that a player must hit a double before they can begin scoring in each leg.
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BOYLE Sports World Grand Prix 2025 Day Four Schedule
Thursday October 9
Second Round
7pm-11pm
Dirk van Duijvenbode v Daryl Gurney
Jonny Clayton v Luke Woodhouse
Luke Littler v Mike De Decker
Gerwyn Price v Josh Rock
