World Matchplay 2025
Debutants
Probably everybody probably awaited my next column would be about the quarterfinals but I thought some variation would be nice and decided to do first this little piece about the debutants- though the men of course are already out of the tournament.. But of course there will be a column about the rest of the tournament as well. This year there are two debutants among the players in the World Matchplay and two debutants in the Women's World Matchplay. In the men's events it are Cameron Menzies and Wessel Nijman, in the women's event it will be Kirsi Viinikainen and Gemma Hayter who will stand for the first time on the stage of the Empress Ballroom.World Matchplay debutants 2025
Cameron Menzies
Cameron Menzies was born 1989 in Glasgow and first played football before he started to play darts. From 2006 he played in BDO tournaments and in 2011 won his first tournament. 2016 he won the British Open, 2017 the Scottish Open (he was one of the not too many Scotsmen who won this tournament) and when Menzies reached in 2017 the semi-finals of the World Masters he got really well-known. The PDC invited him to the Grand Slam 2017 where he lost out of compassion and consideration in the deciding group match to the at that time fighting dartitis Berry van Peer. 2022 Menzies qualified for the first WDF World Championship and reached the semi-finals. After several attempts Menzies managed to get a Tour Card in Q School 2022. Since then he is plays with varying results on the Pro Tour, wins from time to time a Players Championship, reached a few quarterfinals on the Pro Tour. 2024 he stood in the quarterfinals of the Grand Slam. In 2025 he reached the Last 32 of the UK Open. In each year he won a Pro Tour event. In 2025 he qualified for the first time by the Pro Tour Order of Merit for the World Matchplay, but was so overwhelmed by emotions and so nervous it was far to late when he finally looked settled. That showed when he busted with a 180 when he had 178 points left. He had no chance at all against Danny Noppert.
Menzies stopped to work as a plumber only a few months ago. He takes a two years break to have more time to practice which he couldn't manage with working, playing tournaments and traveling. For some time now he works with a sport psychologist to get his stage fear and his tendency to overthink everything under control.
Wessel Nijman
Wessel Nijman was born in 2000 and started his career as a quite successful WDF youth player before he played on the Development Tour since 2016 as well. He won his first tournament there in 2018. Beside he qualified for some European Tour Events and took part several times in Qualifying School before he was banned from playing in 2020 as he had lost deliberately matches in an online tournament. 2023 he returned on Development Tour and won three events. He got a Tour Card by the ranking and as well a place in the PDC World Championship 2024. Nijman dominated the Development Tour in 2024 winning seven events. Beside he celebrated his first win on the Pro Tour and again qualified for several European Tour Events. Again Nijman took part in the PDC World Championship and this time ended one round later in the second round. Since 2025 Nijman only plays on the Pro Tour - so far without success , reached already two European Tour semi-finals and qualified by the Pro Tour Order of Merit for the first time for the World Matchplay.
Nijman's World Matchplay debut was the contrary to Menzies' debut - he looked quite relaxed on the stage - for him one of the reasons for his good performance. But as he says he's not always like this. He knows that he is under pressure but not really feels it. Is the crowd not on his side, he has no problem with it - it only spurns him on. Nijman takes preparing for a tournament or a match very serious and reserves always four hours for it. When asked before the tournment whether he would have a problem with the format which gets longer and longer during the tournament he told that he had no idea as he never before played such a long format but he hoped being young and fit would help him to cope with it. Whether he now had a problem with the second round format after all or whether he was not really relaxed this time I have no idea. I can only tell he didn't play as well as in the first round though his doubles still were clinical.
Kirsi Viinikainen
Finn Kirsi Viinikainen - born in 1972 - plays in WDF tournaments for more then 15 years already and won 2009 the Finnish Open. She is part of the Finnish national team and once reached the semi-finals of the WDF World Cup. From 2014 - 2019 one did hear much from her but in 2019 she was back and won several WDF tournaments.
2023 Viinikainen started to play on the PDC Women's Series and already in the first year for the first time reached a semi-final. End of 2024 she gave her debut in the WDF World Championship and lost second round to Beau Greaves. 2025 Viinikainen won her first Women's Series event and once reached a semi-final - enough to qualify by the ranking for the PDC Women's World Matchplay. She was successful in WDF tournaments this year as well and won the Tallin Open, the Lithunia and the Vilnius Open and the Finnish Open and Finnish Masters. At her World Matchplay debut she will play in the quarterfinals against Beau Greaves.
Gemma Hayter
Contrary to Kirsi Viinikainen Gemma Hayter is not a very experienced player. Hayter, born in 1993 played darts as a youth, among others with Luke Humphries - and soon was nominated for the national team. 2016 she won the British International and then disappeared.
In 2024 she reappeared on the Women's Series, found a sponsor - which was very helpfull - and won two events. 2025 she so far didn't win a title, but already reached two finals, three semi-fianls and four quarterfinals. Hayter will play at her Women's World Matchplay debut against Fallon Sherrock.
As Hayter told in an interview, she had just didn't want any longer to go to the darts when her friends went dancing or to the cinema and put her darts away for nine years. When Humphries won the World Championship in 2024 and the Littler hype started Hayter picked her darts up in January 2024 and already in March celebrated good results on the Women's series. She feels that now darts offers much more opportunity for the women to play and a lot has changed - even the equipment is better today. Hayter is looking forward to the World Matchplay as women darts there gets a lot of attention but that she really would love to play in Lakeside as well as it is till today the only chance for a woman to become World Champion in this sport and that to be sure is something everybody would like to be.
Pictures with kind allowance of the PDC