The anticipation is building in Riyadh as the inaugural Saudi Arabia Darts Masters delivers a blockbuster rematch: double world champion **Luke Littler** is set to face **Gian van Veen** in the quarter-finals, a direct replay of their thrilling clash in the recent PDC World Darts Championship final.
Fresh off his historic back-to-back world title triumphs—the first player to achieve the feat in a decade—Littler dominated his opening match against darts legend Paul Lim. The 18-year-old Englishman, who turns 19 mid-tournament, stormed to a convincing 6-1 victory. He raced into a 4-0 lead with blistering legs of 14 and 14 darts, showcasing the precision and power that have made him the sport’s brightest star. Lim, the evergreen “Singapore Slinger” at 71, fought back to claim the fifth leg with a superb 96 checkout, preventing a whitewash. But Littler quickly regrouped, sealing the win with clinical finishing in a best-of-11 legs encounter.
The subdued atmosphere at the Global Theatre added an extra layer of intrigue to the evening. With alcohol banned in Saudi Arabia, the crowd offered polite applause and respectful silence—far removed from the raucous, chant-filled arenas of Europe. Littler acknowledged the adjustment: “Obviously it is a very weird atmosphere, it is all new to us players. It is a very different environment but as long as you play well you are going to win 90 per cent of the time.” He added with enthusiasm, “I definitely felt good up there and I can’t wait to be back tomorrow. It would mean everything [to win this title]. There can only be one winner and hopefully I can win it tomorrow.”
Van Veen, the Dutch sensation who reached the World Championship final after impressive runs including victories over Luke Humphries and Gary Anderson earlier in the tournament, eased through his opener with a 6-2 win over Japan’s Motomu Sakai. The 2025 European Champion displayed his trademark power scoring, firing in 180s to turn the match in his favor after an initial challenge. Reflecting on the upcoming showdown, Van Veen expressed mixed emotions about facing his childhood rival again so soon: “I was gutted to lose to Luke [Littler] and then Michael [van Gerwen] but I was always happy to make it to those finals.” On the rematch, he said, “I’m really looking forward to tomorrow but I’m first going to enjoy this win and then tomorrow, hopefully revenge.”
Their World Championship encounter saw Littler dismantle Van Veen 7-1 in a one-sided final, cementing his status as the youngest back-to-back champion and claiming a record £1 million prize. That result propelled Littler to the top of the rankings, while Van Veen surged to world number three, signaling the rise of a new generation challenging the established order.
The Saudi Arabia Darts Masters, part of the World Series of Darts and held as part of Riyadh Season, brings elite PDC talent to the Middle East for the first time. The eight PDC representatives—Littler, world number two Luke Humphries, three-time champion Michael van Gerwen, Gerwyn Price, Nathan Aspinall, Stephen Bunting, Danny Noppert, and Van Veen—face off against top Asian qualifiers including Lim, Sakai, Ryusei Azemoto, Alexis Toylo, Lourence Ilagan, Man Lok Leung, Nitin Kumar, and Tomoya Goto.
Other first-round highlights included van Gerwen’s 6-1 win over Nitin Kumar, Price’s dominant 6-0 whitewash of Toylo (complete with a big fish 170 finish), Humphries’ 6-2 victory over Azemoto, Bunting’s 6-1 success against Goto, Aspinall’s 6-1 over Ilagan, and an upset as Noppert fell 6-3 to Leung. The quarter-finals lineup pits van Gerwen against Bunting, Aspinall against Leung, Van Veen against Littler, and Price against Humphries—all best-of-11 legs.
Adding extra excitement is the lucrative “Golden Bullseye” incentive: a player hitting a nine-darter claims $100,000, with the prize doubling to $200,000 if a bonus dart then hits the bullseye. Littler, with multiple televised nine-darters to his name, has openly targeted the bonus, calling it an opportunity he’d love to seize.
As the tournament moves into its decisive day, all eyes are on the Littler-Van Veen clash—a high-stakes battle between the reigning world champion and the hungry runner-up eager for redemption. In a sport where momentum shifts quickly, this rematch promises intensity, skill, and perhaps a touch of revenge. With £30,000 awaiting the eventual champion, the stakes are high in Riyadh, where darts is making its bold debut on a new global stage.
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