The second biggest title the sport has to offer, it is all on the line tonight!
Luke Littler comes into the match as defending Champion, producing darts at a level never seen before, averaging 110.88 for the tournament. He now has an incredible run of 35 consecutive wins in major ranking events in the PDC, and still has the opportunity to become the first man in history to win every major title in a single season.
He faces Gerwyn Price, newly crowed Welsh #1, for the Phil Taylor Trophy. Price comes into the Final having improved all week.
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The Iceman had to survive a massive scare against Martin Schindler in the opening round, making the most of Schindler’s drop off to come through that one, and has really shown his level since, averaging over 102 in his Quarter-Final with Ross Smith.
Price comes into the Matchplay Final having not won a major title since the 2021 Grand Slam, back when he was the number one ranked player on the planet. Since then, he has struggled to reach the same heights, with this being his first major Final (other then the World Cup) in almost three years!
The Welshman has already moved up to fourth in the Werner Rankings Ladder as a result of his exploits this week but can go £140,000 clear of Jonny Clayton in fifth with a win today, halfway between him and the likes of Luke Humphries and Gian van Veen.
Luke Littler became the first man in PDC history to reach £3million in prize money with his dominant win yesterday against Dirk van Duijvenbode and could move up to £3,143,500 with a win tonight.
Luke Littler’s tournament average of 110.88 is sure to break the all-time record at the World Matchplay, currently stood at 106.31 from Phil Taylor in 2010. This is almost a given to be broken, with Littler only needing to average 88 to break it.
There are bigger fish to fry for Littler however. In the history of the PDC, Phil Taylor has the record for highest major winning average – 111.54 in the 2009 European Championships. This is a record that Littler could feasibly break tonight, but would need an average of over 114 to do so.
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Gerwyn Price was once the kryptonite of Luke Littler, beating him eight times between January 2024 and March 2025, but it has since been a bit of a nightmare for the Welshman. He has beaten the Nuke just once in their last 18 meetings, with that one winning coming on the World Series in January. Littler has beaten him in countless major Semi-Finals and Quarter-Finals. It’ll take a gargantuan effort from Price to overcome Littler tonight.
Regardless of the records, Littler is looking to become the first man to defend the Matchplay Title for over a decade, since Michael van Gerwen in 2015/16, while Gerwyn Price is looking to win the iconic title for the first time in his career.
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Images: PDC / Taylor Lanning
Words: Thomas Nankivell
