By Oliver Powell
The Quarterfinals of the Winmau World Masters saw the higher seeds dominate, with Luke Littler looking to get his hands on the title for the first time.
2025 winner Luke Humphries, Gerwyn Price and Gian van Veen completed the semi-final line-up, with no one able to replicate Humphries’ heroics in producing a nine-darter and Van Veen’s clash with James Wade the standout fixture.
180UK reporter Oliver Powell covered the afternoon’s action in Milton Keynes.
Match 1: Gerwyn Price vs Chris Dobey
Gerwyn Price came through a closely contested opening match with Chris Dobey to secure his spot in the semi-finals and chase down his first Masters title.
Dobey took the first set against the darts, before ‘The Iceman’ put his foot on the gas to reel off three straight sets.
‘Hollywood’ missed opportunities at the bull throughout the match, including two for the big fish, as he failed to get past the Welshman with the averages near-identical at 96.95 for Price and 96.20 for Dobey, reflecting the nature of the contest.
Dobey took set five to inspire a fightback but a 78 average in set six couldn’t stop Gezzy reaching the final four, with doubling the key having hit 10/16.
Result: Price 4-2 Dobey
Match 2: Luke Littler vs Josh Rock
Luke ‘The Nuke’ Littler thrashed Josh Rock in a whitewash of a match that lasted just 12 minutes and only saw nine legs of action.
Littler averaged nearly 106 as he strolled into the semi-finals of the World Masters for the first time in his career, not needing to pull out any show-stopping finishes to come out on top and only conceding one leg.
‘Rocky’ failed to play his best darts albeit the challenge of defeating the rampant Nuke proves too steep for most in the sport.
The fourth and final set was the finest of the lot, with the reigning World Champion putting up a 125.25 average, giving Rock’s 110 not a sniff.
Littler is just three PDC televised tournaments away from completing the set at 19 years old, with the World Cup of Darts and the European Championship on his radar, and now just two victories away from picking up the Masters as he takes on Gerwyn Price in the semi-final.
Result: Littler 4-0 Rock
Match 3: Gian van Veen vs James Wade
World Championship runner up Gian van Veen secured his place in the final four as he came out on top of a high-calibre affair with James Wade.
Van Veen was ruthless in the first set with a 115.62 average, giving little optimism Wade could have a say in proceedings just as Josh Rock found in the previous match.
‘The Machine’ fought back in set two, before Van Veen produced a carbon copy of set one with a 115.62 average and throwing 26 darts to win set three.
Wade got seven darts into a nine-darter before wiring the eighth dart into treble one in set four as the match continued to be back-and-forth.
The final two sets saw Van Veen edge deciding legs as Wade produced the higher average at 103.68, although 73% on doubles made the difference for ‘The Giant’ to return to the stage this evening.
Result: Van Veen 4-2 Wade
Match 4: Luke Humphries vs Danny Noppert
The reigning champion Luke Humphries whitewashed Danny Noppert to secure the final spot of the semi-finals.
Lightning looked to be striking twice as Humphries rattled in two maximums for a chance at a second nine-darter in less than 24 hours, before a dart into treble one produced a symphony of boos and a rye smile from ‘Cool Hand’.
Humphries punished Noppert’s missed dart at tops in the final leg of set two to take a commanding position in what is an unforgiving best-of-three-leg set match format.
‘The Freeze’ couldn’t find his feet with the doubles, even going seven-darts into a nine in set three yet still on the receiving end of more Humphries brutality, missing six in total as he was put on the ropes with a 3-0 deficit.
Double trouble continued in the final set of the match for Noppert, with world number two Humphries on track to defend his title against Gian van Veen in the semi-final this evening.
Result: Humphries 4-0 Noppert