Luke Littler, Gian Van Veen and Luke Humphries have been handed their first spherical matches on this 12 months’s Bahrain Darts Masters, within the first occasion of the 2026 World Sequence of Darts.
World champion Littler has been handed an attention grabbing tie towards 71-year-old Paul Lim to headline the primary spherical, in a conflict of youth towards expertise.
Second seed Gian Van Veen shall be in search of revenge in his match towards Man Lok Leung of Hong Kong – the 2 confronted off at Alexandra Palace in 2023, when Leung accomplished a surprising 3-2 win from three units all the way down to knock Van Veen out of the World Championship.
Michael van Gerwen faces PDC Asian tour winner Alexis Toylo, while Gerwyn Value takes on fan-favourite Motomu Sakai after the Japanese participant made his World Championship debut final month.
Humphries faces Bahrain’s Abdulla Saeed, and reigning champion Stephen Bunting faces two-time World Championship qualifier Ryusei Azemoto amongst different ties.
2026 Bahrain Masters schedule
Stephen Bunting on the World Darts Championship
First spherical – Thursday 15 January – Better of 11 legs
Gerwyn Value v Motomu Sakai
Gian van Veen v Man Lok Leung
Danny Noppert v Basem Mahmood
Nathan Aspinall v Lourence Ilagan
Luke Humphries v Abdulla Saeed
Luke Littler v Paul Lim
Michael van Gerwen v Alexis Toylo
Stephen Bunting v Ryusei Azemoto
Quarter-Finals – Friday 16 January – Better of 11 legs
Littler/Lim v Value/Sakai
Van Gerwen/Toylo v Bunting/Azemoto
Humphries/Saeed v Aspinall/Ilagan
Van Veen/Leung v Noppert/Mahmood
Semi-Finals
Better of 13 legs
Closing
Better of 15 legs
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