The Asian Tour returned to Manila, Philippines over the weekend for it’s penultimate act of the 2026 season. With just eight events to go, the race to Alexandra Palace is well and truly on.
As it stands, the top five will qualify for the World Championships, however, Motomu Sakai went into the weekend at the top of the table, and he also leads the Japan Tour. Should he qualify for the World’s through both, he will take the Japan spot and sixth place on the Asian Tour will qualify for the World Championships, creating more opportunity in the continent.
DARTS PLAYER MERCHANDISE AND COLLECTABLES AT OUR DARTSWORLD STORE!
The weekend had an incredible turn-out, as it always does in the Philippines, with over 220 entrants, including 171 from the host country. There were also 27 representatives from Japan, and a handful from Brunei, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Taiwan, China, Mongolia, Singapore and Thailand. A very diverse weekend on the Asian Tour, however, one that didn’t particularly go to plan for the Filipinos.
PDC Asian Darts Tour 2026
Event 21
The first event of the weekend saw early exits for Alexis Toylo and Lourence Ilagan in the Last 128, along with a few upsets. Jolandy Bay-Oyen was playing on the Asian Tour for just the third weekend in his career, and first in exactly a year, and went on to reach the Semi-Finals, beating Yuya Fukuchi to do so. Japan’s Takayuki Masatsu beat second on the rankings Muramatsu to reach just a second final on the Asian Tour; however, it went the same way as the last.
Hong Kong’s Lok Yin Lee walked away with the title, beating Masatsu 5-3 in the Final, claim a second Asian Tour Title of the season, and a fifth of his career. Lee came into the weekend sat in sixth on the World Championship Race, so it was a very important title to boost his hopes, giving him a $4,000 lead on seventh place Ryuta Arihara, one third of his total prize money for the season.
The performance of the event came from Haruki Muramatsu, who averages 107.36 in beating Angelo Masa 4-0 in the Last 32. Another good event from the Japanese World Cup star, who looks sure of a return to the World stage for the first time in three years.
Quarter-Finals:
Takayuki Masatsu (94.93) 4-1 Motomu Sakai (81.08)
Haruki Muramatsu (92.06) 4-2 Man Lok Leung (90.25)
Lok Yin Lee (91.30) 4-3 Aris Quijano (86.47)
Jolandy Bag-Oyen (88.41) 4-0 Yuya Fukuchi (80.52)
Semi-Finals:
Takayuki Masatsu (86.18) 5-4 Haruki Muramatsu (86.13)
Lok Yin Lee (81.47) 5-3 Jolandy Bag-Oyen (85.97)
Final
Lok Yin Lee(92.35) 5-3 Takayuki Masatsu (93.18)
INTERESTED IN GLOBAL DARTS? Checkout DartsWorld’s Dedicated Area
Event 22
The second event on Saturday saw a lot of unknown quantities making deep runs, with the likes of Gregorio Academia and Carlo Monstanto reaching the Quarter-Finals, and Pin Feng Yeh reaching the Semi-Finals. However, this was beaten by Filipino Jeffrey Pinas, who made a run all the way to the Final on his very first day in Asian Tour action.
Pinas beat Tomoya Goto, Lok Yin Lee, Sho Okano and Reynaldo Rivera en-route to the Final, an incredible run from the debutant, who was eventually downed by Japan’s Ryuta Arihara in a whitewash final. Arihara claimed a second Asian Tour Title of his career, with the first coming earlier this year, and began to close the gap to the World Championship spots, having sat in seventh prior to the event.
The performances of the event came from Arihara himself, averaging 105.47 in his Last 16 win over Johnlloyd Castro, and 105.17 in his Quarter-Final win over Carlo Monsanto.
Quarter-Finals
Pin Feng Yeh (88.48) 4-1 Gregorio Academia (82.50)
Ryuta Arihara (105.17) 4-1 Carlo Monstanto (79.87)
Jeffrey Pinas (81.59) 4-1 Sho Okano (78.72)
Reynaldo Rivera (84.69) 4-3 Mitsuhiko Tatsunami (81.96)
Semi-Finals
Ryuta Arihara (85.40) 5-0 Pin Feng Yeh (78.54)
Jeffrey Pinas (74.84) 5-2 Reynaldo Rivera (78.43)
Final
Ryuta Arihara (90.54) 5-0 Jeffrey Pinas (86.52)
Event 23
The upsets slowed down on Sunday morning, with all eight of the Quarter-Finalists being in the Top 16 on the 2026 Order of Merit.
Paolo Nebrida followed in the footsteps of Pinas the previous day, beating out Man Lok Leung to move into the Final of Event 23. There was a possibility of an all-Filippino Final, however, Ryuta Arihara continues his form over-night, beating out top seed Motomu Sakai in the Quarter-Finals, and Lourence Ilagan in the Semi-Finals.
Arihara beat Nebrida 5-4 to claim a third successive deciding leg win, going back-to-back on the Asian Tour to claim a third Title of his career on the tour. This saw him overtake Lok Yin Lee into sixth on the World Championship Race, with a real possibility to making a debut at Alexandra Palace in December.
Alexis Toylo produced the performance of the event, averaging 105.47 in beating William Bantiding 4-0 in the Last 32. Gilbert Tulawan also produced a 104.06 average to beat Terry Tan 4-1 in the same round.
Quarter-Finals
Ryuta Arihara (98.55) 4-3 Motomu Sakai (92.34)
Lourence Ilagan (97.88) 4-3 Yuta Hayashi (96.09)
Paolo Nebrida (93.55) 4-2 Alexis Toylo (92.37)
Man Lok Leung (81.24) 4-0 Christian Perez (69.71)
Semi-Finals
Ryuta Arihara (88.24) 5-4 Lourence Ilagan (84.10)
Paolo Nebrida (87.41) 5-4 Man Lok Leung (89.30)
Final
Ryuta Arihara (88.69) 5-4 Paolo Nebrida (84.24)
Event 24
The final event of the weekend saw more underdog stories develop, with the likes of Roger Estacio, Jhasfer Jhaf Doria and Julian Crosado reaching the Quarter-Finals, and Joel Hizon reaching the Semi-Finals.
It was familiar names in the Final however, with Christian Perez taking on the dominance of Ryuta Arihara. A run to the Final saw Perez overtake Sakai into top spot on the 2026 Order of Merit, regardless of which way the Final went. The 2023/24 Tour Card Holder now looks nailed on for a return to Alexandra Palace for the first time in four years.
Ryuta Arihara ran out winner again, downing Perez 5-1 to claim a third successive title on the Asian Tour, becoming only the second man to ever achieve this feat after Lourence Ilagan did so back in 2019! He moves up to third on the Asian Tour, in a brilliant position for a World Championship debut.
The performances of the event came from Arihara himself yet again, averaging 104.04 in beating Daniel Facturanan in the Last 16, and 101.9 to beat Roger Estacio in the Quarter-Finals.
Quarter-Finals
Ryuta Arihara (101.90) 4-0 Roger Estacio (75.47)
Haruki Muramatsu (88.49) 4-3 Jhasfer Jhaf Doria (79.24)
Joel Hizon (97.46) 4-1 Alexis Toylo (88.96)
Christian Perez (89.82) 4-2 Julian Crosado (81.34)
Semi-Finals
Ryuta Arihara (79.18) 5-4 Haruki Muramatsu (79.65)
Christian Perez (96.08) 5-2 Joel Hizon (85.24)
Final
Ryuta Arihara (95.29) 5-1 Christian Perez (75.87)
Round-up
With just two events to go now, there’s six people trying to fit into five spots on the Asian Tour, with Sakai likely qualifying through the Japanese Tour, one person will have to miss out:
- Christian Perez – $15,650
- Motomu Sakai – $15,400
- Ryuta Arihara – $15,250
- Haruki Muramatsu – $14.750
- Man Lok Leung – $13,250
- Paolo Nebrida – $12,950
- Lok Yin Lee – $12,300
- Yuya Fukuchi – $8,300
- Alexis Toylo – $8,200
- Ryusei Azemoto – $7,800
The Asian Tour will return in Chaingjiang, in China, midway through September. This will be the final weekend of action, followed by the Asian Championship on Monday 14th.
MORE ELITE DARTS COVERAGE: Check Out Our Devoted PDC Area
The Asian Championship has World Championship spots on offer for the Finalists, meaning that finishing in seventh and eight on the Asian Tour could be important, with the spots being passed down the Order of Merit should an already-qualified player reach the Final.
Image: Japanese Sports Federation of Darts
