By Stan Drummond
After two days of terrific tungsten throwing, round one of the World Grand Prix 2025 is complete. As the remaining 16 players continue to battle it out for one of the toughest PDC majors in the darts calendar.
With the competition’s unique double start format, and the winners of the opening round being the first to just two sets, there was plenty of chances for potential drama and upsets, and round one did not disappoint. So, in case you missed anything, here were five of the biggest moments across Monday and Tuesday’s 16 fixtures.
5. The Asp caught a big fish
Nathan Aspinall got off to an impressive start during his game against world number one, Luke Humpries. Cool Hand Luke comfortably won the first leg of the game but, when it came to Aspinall’s first leg with the starting darts, he was able to produce some magic which stunned the Matioli Arena.
During this leg, The Asp opened with double 16 on his second dart which was followed up by a 20, this was fairly standard practice. He then rose to the next level and threw a 140 and a 139 back-to-back, which took him to 170 after nine darts. On his next visit he rattled off the two treble 20s and completed the 501 with a bullseye to and leave Humphries stunned on 327.
But Luke Humpries reminded everyone why he has earnt the nickname of Cool Hand over the years, as he went onto triumph in leg three and leg five to win the first set. Humphries then blitzed the second set 3-0 to win the match
4. Legends left it to the last-leg
The highly anticipated pairing between two former world champions saw Raymond Van Barneveld face Gary Anderson in the opening round. Anderson came into the match as the clear favourite over Barney but there was very little to separate the two well-loved stalwarts of the game. With averages of 90.06 and 86.22 respectively and both averaged around the 54% mark for checkouts.
The stats gave a good sense of how the game panned out as The Flying Scotsman steamed ahead to win opening set 3-1. However, Barney was able to possess the eye of the tiger and hit back to reverse the score in the second, to make the match 1-1. This meant it was all to play for in the deciding set, with Van Barneveld holding the advantage of throwing first.
Both players won their two expected legs by holding their throws, which left everything down to the final 501. Barney became the stalling Dutchman as he failed to open his account by missing three darts at a double, which in-turn conceded his advantage to Anderson.
3. MVG dumped out in round one (again)
Dirk Van Duijvenbode defeated fellow dutchman and six-time champion, Michael Van Gerwen 2-0 to make it two consecutive opening round defeats for Mighty Mike in the World Grand Prix. MVG’s inconsistency has been well documented over the past couple of years but his recent success at the World Series of Darts in September, which ended his two-year PDC title drought, indicated that he had possibly turned over a new leaf.
The Aubergenius quickly figured out a way to dismantle The Green Machine as Van Gerwen was almost completely whitewashed by the world’s 32nd ranked player. DVD won five straight legs against Van Gerwen before the three-time world champion was spared his blushes by breaking Van Duijvenbode’s throw through five perfect darts, to start a 14-dart leg – a glimpse of what he’s capable of. But despite also winning the next leg, The Titan held his throw on the last, and secured a well-deserved win
2. Heta lost with an 8-dart head start
As the Leicester crowd lapped up ‘dancing in the dark’ by Bruce Springstein, Damon Heta entered the stage wearing his trademark foam flame hat. Luke Woodhouse was a familiar opponent and had defeated Heta in the world championships last year. Woody was in good form, and started the game in perfect fashion by whitewashing the Australian to take the first set.
Heta responded through instant reply by replicating Woodhouse’s dominance in the second set to even the game, with a mightily impressive 110 average. It was back and forth in legs as Woodhouse held the darts for the third set. However, the start of the deciding leg could not have gone any worse for Woody. The heat had got to him, and with eight missed darts at the opening double Heta was on 310, before Woodhouse opened the scoring.
But The Heat quickly froze, as Heta mounted a total of 97 over his next two visits, while Woodhouse threw six perfect darts to leave 90 whilst his opponent sat on 213. Inspired darts from Woody saw him extinguish the flames of Heta, and edge himself into the second round. He will play 2021’s tournament winner, Jonny Clayton.
1. Littler won the greatest game in World Grand Prix history
The number one moment in round one of The World Grand Prix 2025 was not even a debate, as it could have been the greatest opening tie in Grand Prix history. It was simply incredible. The reigning youth champion Gian Van Veen faced the reigning world champion Luke Littler, in the most highly anticipated tie of the competition. As words cannot begin to describe the quality of the match with any justice, hopefully the stats can be the first step in making sense of what happened.
The two most inform players (over the last 200 legs) broke the records for the highest and third highest average scores of all time in a World Grand Prix game. Although, Van Veen had the higher average of 106.47, Luke The Nuke Littler followed close behind with 105.58 but showed off his remarkable talent to storm the game 2-0. The first leg was over in just six minutes as The Giant opened the tie with an 11-dart leg, a clear statement of intent for the quality which followed. Van Veen held his throw until the final leg before Litter’s superiority shone through.
The Nuke checked out a 151 to win the fourth and was able to back it up with a 180 in the next leg, against the throw to take the first set. The second leg was a different story as Littler whitewashed Van Veen, which was insane, considering the quality of darts that the young dutchman was producing. Littler had the darts for the set and held his throw in the first leg.
It only took the 18-year-old won each of the next two legs with 12 darts. In these final legs Littler opened the first with five perfect darts and the second with four. The only thing missing from this game was a 9-darter, as ironic booing bubbled round the arena after Littler dipped below the treble 20 section which ruined any possibility of the Leicester crowd witnessing this rare.
There’s much more to come from Van Veen, and he’ll certainly be one to keep an eye for at the Ally Pally this Christmas. Following Luke Littler’s first ever win in the World Grand Prix, he will go on to face last year’s champion Mike De Deker in round two, which will be played on Thursday.