For half a century the World Masters has crowned champions from England, the Netherlands, Wales and beyond, but never from the host nation of its landmark 50th edition.
That changed on a sweltering Saturday night at the Rio Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, where Chris Lim held his nerve through a deciding thirteenth leg to become the first American ever to lift the title and to take home the $12,000 jackpot.
It was a final that had everything. Lim, son of darts icon Paul Lim, fell into an early deficit but he quickly found his feet to bring the game level. After a back and forth battle, the pair found themselves locked in a deciding leg.
There, with the biggest title of his career on the board, Lim found the composure his opponent could not quite match, and after a plethora of match darts missed from Raman, the American closed out a 7-6 victory with an average of 87.8 to Raman’s 81.There was a symmetry to the setting.
Las Vegas has been kind to Lim before, with five of his six WDF titles having come in the city. That a home player should be the one to finally break the American duck on the Open title, in the very tournament that brought the Masters stateside, will not be lost on the WDF’s organisers.
The achievement also carries family weight. Paul Lim, a familiar face on the PDC stage for decades, reached the World Masters last sixteen on four occasions in the 1980s and was runner up at the WDF World Championship. His son now follows him into the record books, and this December, into Lakeside itself, with the Open title carrying automatic qualification for the 2026 WDF World Championship.
Only one previous American had gone as close: Larry Butler, beaten by Glen Durrant in the 2015 final. Eleven years on, Lim has finished the job.
The American’s path to the title was assured rather than spectacular in its early stages. He topped his round-robin group without dropping a match, seeing off seeded player Carsten Hoffmann along the way, before comfortable victories over Ethan De Veyra, Boris Krcmar, Haupai Puha and David Fatum carried him to the semi finals.
There, he dispatched Dutchman Stefan Schroder 6-1 to book his place in the title match.That run stood in contrast to Lim’s earlier week. He had been beaten 4-1 by Matthew Edgar in Friday’s separate World Open, eventually won by Moreno Blom, a defeat that made his Masters triumph forty-eight hours later all the sweeter.
Raman, meanwhile, arrived at the final in scintillating form. His semi-final victory over Sean Fisher was ruthless, a 6-1 win built on an 86.61 average that left little doubt about his credentials.
Getting there had not always been straightforward. A quarter-final against Paul Krohne went to a deciding ninth leg, with Raman prevailing 5-4 despite Krohne posting the higher average.
For the Belgian, often a quarter-finalist on the biggest stages, this was the deepest World Masters run of his career, and it very nearly ended in the ultimate prize.
Stefan Schroder’s tournament deserves its own mention. The Dutchman defeated Shane Sakchekapo, Reece Pauling and Turkey’s Müsel Yavuz to reach the final four, only to run into a rampant Lim in the semi-final. It was nonetheless a strong showing from the Dutch contingent, which fielded sixteen players in the Open draw this year.
Final:
Chris Lim 7-6 Brian Raman
Semi-finals:
Chris Lim 6-1 Stefan Schroder
Brian Raman 6-1 Sean FIsher
Quarter-finals
Stefan Schroder 5-3 Mürsel
Chris Lim 5-1 David Fatum
Sean Fisher 5-1 Matthew Edgar
Brian Raman 5-4 Paul Krohne
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