Nov 26,2024
William O'Connor and Dylan Slevin have been drawn together in an all-Irish first-round clash at the upcoming 2024-25 PDC World Championships.
Limerick native O'Connor was knocked out of the tournament in the second round last year but to get to that stage this time he will have to overcome the challenge of 22-year-old Tipperary man Slevin, who will be at Alexandra Palace for the second year in a row after coming through the qualifiers.
The match winner will advance to face Belgian 11th seed Dimitri van den Bergh in the second round.
Meath's Keane Barry, who will feature in the opening round for the sixth year in a row, has been drawn against Belgium's Kim Huybrechts with the winner advancing to take on 10th seed Gerwyn Price of Wales.
Josh Rock, the 18th seed from Antrim, will start from round two where he will await the victor between Karel Sedlacek and Rhys Griffin, while Chris Landman and Lok Yin Lee will battle it out to face 30th seed and Fermanagh native Brendan Dolan.
Derry's Daryl Gurney, seeded 27th, will await either Florian Hempel or Jeffrey De Zwaan in the second round.
Tyrone's Mickey Mansell will be in first-round action against Japanse player Tomoya Goto in the hope of booking a clash against seventh seed Jonny Clayton.
The World Championships will get underway on Sunday, 15 December at Ally Pally, with the final on 3 January.
Meanwhile, Luke Littler knows there will be plenty more opportunities for a World Championship final rematch with Luke Humphries after this year's draw put them on course for a semi-final meeting.
The teenage sensation turned himself into a global star in last year's tournament with a historic run to the final where he lost to Humphries.
It was the start of a strong rivalry, which has continued throughout 2024.
Littler, who was drawn to play either Fallon Sherrock or Ryan Meikle in the second round, has climbed to fourth in the world rankings and that puts him in the same half of the draw as Humphries.
"That's my fault to get to four in the world!" he said. "But we have to win our games to get to the semi-final.
"I'm sure we'll be up for it. We have three or four matches to win before that. We bring the best out of each other, we always play well.
"When he is on form it's hard to break through, but the rivalry is going to go on for many more years.
"It's been crazy, the ride I have been on. We're not even 12 months in yet and it has been crazy.
"I am going to be here for many years, but my full focus is on the next tournament and trying to win the World Championship."
Littler has been the star of the sport since that memorable two weeks at the Alexandra Palace, even though it was Humphries who claimed glory with his first world title.
Humphries has had a brilliant year as world champion, winning two major titles and losing in three finals, and knows he and Littler are the standout players in the game.
"It is good for the sport, it is a friendly rivalry, when we play each other we both want to win, but we have a laugh and have fun," Humphries, who will play the winner of Thibault Tricole or Joe Comito in the first round, said.
"We are hoping we are going to be in another 20 times in the future, who knows. It looks like we are going to be one and two in the world soon so that will give us the opportunity to be in more finals.
"Right now, I do feel me and Luke are the best two players in the world.
"Stats prove that, we have won 17 titles between us, it's been a great year for both of us and and we'll be happy to carry that on."
Noa-Lynn van Leuven will make history as the first transgender player to play on the Alexandra Palace stage and will be up against Kevin Doets in the first round.
2024-25 PDC World Darts Championship
Draw for second round onwards (Seeding in brackets, players from the island of Ireland in italics)
(1) Luke Humphries v Thibault Tricole/Joe Comito
(32) Raymond van Barneveld v Nick Kenny/Stowe Buntz
(16) James Wade v Jermaine Wattimena/Stefan Bellmont
(17) Peter Wright v Wesley Plaisier/Ryusei Azemoto
(8) Stephen Bunting v Alan Soutar/Kai Gotthardt
(25) Dirk van Duijvenbode v Madars Razma/Christian Kist
(9) Damon Heta v Connor Scutt/Ben Robb
(24) Mike De Decker v Luke Woodhouse/Lourence Ilagan
(4) Luke Littler v Ryan Meikle/Fallon Sherrock
(29) Ritchie Edhouse v Ian White/Sandro Eric Sosing
(13) Danny Noppert v Ryan Joyce/Darius Labanauskas
(20) Ryan Searle v Mensur Suljovic/Matt Campbell
(5) Rob Cross v Scott Williams/Niko Springer
(28) Gian van Veen v Ricardo Pietreczko/Xiaochen Zong
(12) Nathan Aspinall v Cameron Menzies/Leonard Gates
(21) Andrew Gilding v Martin Lukeman/Nitin Kumar
(2) Michael Smith v Kevin Doets/Noa-Lynn van Leuven
(31) Krzysztof Ratajski v Richard Veenstra/Alexis Toylo
(15) Chris Dobey v Stephen Burton/Alexander Merkx
(18) Josh Rock v Karel Sedlacek/Rhys Griffin
(7) Jonny Clayton v Mickey Mansell/Tomoya Goto
(26) Daryl Gurney v Florian Hempel/Jeffrey De Zwaan
(10) Gerwyn Price v Kim Huybrechts/Keane Barry
(23) Joe Cullen v Wessel Nijman/Cameron Carolissen
(3) Michael van Gerwen v James Hurrell/Jim Long
(30) Brendan Dolan v Chris Landman/Lok Yin Lee
(14) Gary Anderson v Jeffrey de Graaf/Rashad Sweeting
(19) Ross Smith v Jim Williams/Paolo Nebrida
(6) Dave Chisnall v Ricky Evans/Gordon Mathers
(27) Gabriel Clemens v Niels Zonneveld/Robert Owen
(11) Dimitri Van den Bergh v William O'Connor/Dylan Slevin
(22) Martin Schindler v Callan Rydz/Romeo Grbavac
Additional reporting: PA
