Bahrain Darts Masters 2025 Preview: Can Luke Littler go Back to Back?
We come to our first PDC title of 2025 off the back of the World Championships, where Luke ‘The Nuke’ Littler got his hands on the famous Sid Waddell trophy, and Littler will be looking to lay some foundations for another amazing year for the 17-year-old.
The World Championships saw Luke Littler overcome Michael Van Gerwen 7-3 as he got his first world title, which is expected to be the first of many. He will have his sights set again in Bahrain for another piece of silverware but there will be no MVG standing in his way this time.
PDC and Asian Representatives
The PDC have another 7 representatives travelling over to Bahrain and they consist of:
Luke Humphries – The current World Number 1 will be looking to make amends after being dumped out of the Worlds by Peter Wright in the Round of 16 4-1
Rob Cross - The former World Champion, like Humphries, had an incredibly disappointing World Championship, getting knocked out by Scott Williams in the Round of 64 3-1. He will be looking at forgetting and trying to start 2025 with a bang.
Stephen Bunting – Had a great World Championship, losing to Littler in the semi-final and after being chosen in the Premier League lineup, he will be looking for a very positive 2025.
Gerwyn Price and Peter Wright – We can fit these two into the same category after both the Scot and the Welshman had rather disappointing years in 2024, they both put on some great shows at the Worlds, and some consider them lucky to be featured in this lineup.
Chris Dobey and Nathan Aspinall – Dobey put on a fantastic performance at the World Championships losing out to Van Gerwen in the semi-final 6-1 and after making the Premier League lineup, he will be ecstatic to start 2025 over in Bahrain.
Aspinall has struggled with ‘dartitis’ and injury towards the back end of 2024, but still managed some decent performances in the World Championships getting beat by Littler 5-2 in the Quarter Final.
The Asian Representatives see some new and returning faces into the mix with Lourence Ilgan, Paolo Nebrida and Abdulla Saeed all returning to the oche in Bahrain and with new faces such as Alexis Toylo, Nittin Kumar, Lok Yin Lee, Xiaochen Zong and Basem Mahmood.
It does mean that a fan favourite Hasan Haji with his very ‘unorthodox’ throw misses out on this year's tournament.
Last Year’s Final
The Bahrain Darts Masters Final in 2024 saw the very first encounter of this year’s World Championship Final as Luke Littler took on Michael Van Gerwenn. Fresh off the disappointment of the Worlds for Littler he was looking to stamp his presence of the darting world, and stamp is exactly what he did.
With an average of 95.15 from Littler, he was able to see off Van Gerwen and claim his first of 11 PDC titles in 2024 and claim the £20,000 prize pot.
With the same prize pot as last year of £20,000 for the winner, it will be a fierce competition, fresh from his Worlds triumph, it is hard to look anywhere else other than Luke ‘The Nuke’ Littler to secure back-to-back Bahrain Darts Masters and take home the trophy again and start 2025, how he started 2024.