Glory for van Veen as the young star wins his first PDC ranking title

Gian van Veen defeated Luke Humphries 8-3 in the final to win his first PDC ranking championship at the Players Championship Six in Leicester on Wednesday.

Van Veen recovered to defeat Joe Cullen at the Mattioli Arena after losing to Cullen in Tuesday’s Players Championship Five final, where he missed six match darts.

After finishing second in four Players Championship tournaments and one European Tour event, Van Veen defeated world number one Humphries in his fifth ProTour final.

“After what happened yesterday, this feels amazing,” said reigning World Youth Champion Van Veen.

“I’ve had two incredible days here; I felt a bit hard done by yesterday and I was heartbroken after I lost the final, so to rectify that today is unbelievable.

“I’ve been playing well so far this year and my goal was to win a title; I knew I was the highest-ranked player without a ranking title.

“I’ve achieved that now and this win will give me massive confidence going into a busy next few weeks.”

After easily defeating Steve Lennon and Krzysztof Ratajski to start his title run, Van Veen advanced to the round of 16 via a last-leg matchup with Connor Scutt.

He advanced to the final there by defeating fellow Dutchman Jermaine Wattimena and then easily defeating Madars Razma and James Wade.

Van Veen jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the final, and the Dutchman maintained his cool to prevent Humphries from getting back into the match.

In other news, Michael van Gerwen lost to Ryan Meikle at the same point, and world champion Luke Littler lost to Dom Taylor in a last-leg decider in round two.

Alan Soutar and Humphries both had nine-dart finishes in the opening round of Wednesday’s action against Andy Boulton and Littler, respectively.

Glory for van Veen as the young star wins his first PDC ranking title

Wednesday March 12 2025

Mattioli Arena, Leicester

Last 16

Kevin Doets 6-4 Rob Cross

Ross Smith 6-0 Stephen Burton

Luke Humphries 6-3 William O’Connor

Damon Heta 6-4 Sebastian Bialecki

Stephen Bunting 6-4 Gerwyn Price

Madars Razma 6-2 Gary Anderson

Gian van Veen 6-1 Jermaine Wattimena

James Wade 6-3 Ryan Joyce

Quarter-Finals

Ross Smith 6-3 Kevin Doets

Luke Humphries 6-5 Damon Heta

Madars Razma 6-4 Stephen Bunting

Gian van Veen 6-2 James Wade

Semi-Finals

Luke Humphries 7-4 Ross Smith

Gian van Veen 7-1 Madars Razma

Final

Gian van Veen 8-3 Luke Humphries

Nine-Darters

Luke Humphries hit a nine-darter in his first round tie against Andy Boulton.

Alan Soutar hit a nine-darter in his first round tie against Luke Littler.