The final eight are set to face off at the Alexandra Palace oche tonight at the 2025 version of the PDC World Championships.
The first quarter final will see Chris Dobey take on Gerwyn Price. Price has been here before, of course, whilst Dobey has lost in this round for the last two years, and always to former world champions. Two years ago, he lost 5-0 to MvG, whilst last year he lost 5-4 to another former World Champion in Rob Cross. So, he is getting closer and has demonstrated he is even more determined to progress past this stage after last year’s disappointment. Price won at this stage in 2020 and 2021 before losing two quarter finals in a row (5-4 to Michael Smith in 2022 and 5-1 to Gabriel Clemens in 2023) before bowing out in the third-round last year. Things are that close it might come down to who is on their checkouts on the night. Of the remaining eight players these two have the worst tournament checkout rate (albeit Price on 34% and Dobey on 31% is pretty good anyway!) There always seems to be one semi finalist outside the predictions, (Williams last year, Clemens the year before) so Dobey may be that one.
Whilst Luke Littler leads the way in tournament average (just over 100), it is Callan Rydz who has his peers talking with his efforts so far giving him a tournament average of 99.43. This could be the match of the day in terms of quality as MvG is averaging about a point behind and is in third place in that regard overall. The narrative of this event has been MvG is not the player he was, but putting that to one side the fact is he is in the quarter finals. From 2013 to 2020 inclusive, Van Gerwen made it past the quarter finals excluding 2016, the only time he did not make it to the quarters in that period. He lost 5-0 to Dave Chisnall in 2021 at this stage and after withdrawing from the 2022 event due to Covid, he won his quarter final in 2023. Last year he lost to Scott Williams 5-3 at this stage so he won’t want to make the same mistake again this year. Meanwhile it has been a while since Rydz made this stage, the 2022 event saw him lose 5-4 to another former world champion in Peter Wright. Rydz had not dropped a set until last round but the fight to survive in the last set against Robert Owen may have given him the jolt he needed to be on top of his game against Van Gerwen.
It sets up the bottom of the draw nicely, where two former world champions meet in the semi-final, or two Geordies face off instead, or obviously a mixture of a former world champ and a Geordie.
This session kicks off from 1130pm AEDST tonight on Fox Sports 507 and Kayo Sports in Australia. New Zealand can watch it on Sky Sports from 130am. For those who are PDC TV subscribers you can also watch it on there in Australia and New Zealand.
Wednesday January 1
Afternoon Session (1230 GMT)
Quarterfinals x2
Chris Dobey v Gerwyn Price
Michael van Gerwen v Callan Rydz
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