World Matchplay 2026
The First Round
The first round of the World Matchplay was somewhat overshadowed by the football World Cup; the schedule was only finalized once it was certain that England would not reach the final. Consequently, reigning champion Luke Littler began his tournament on the opening night, leaving no doubt about his intent and ability to retain the title-at least once he had found his rhythm and shut out his opponent, debutant Niko Springer.
Like all the other debutants this year, Springer put in a solid performance-yet, like all the others, he was eliminated in the first round.
However, Littler wasn't the only one to impress in the first round; outstanding performances also came from Nathan Aspinall, Gary Anderson, and Ross Smith-who all won their matches- and as well from Kevin Doets. Although Doets lost to Smith, he posted an average of over 104, making him the best-performing "loser" of the round.
For the most part, the seeded players won their matches. The exceptions were Danny Noppert, Chris Dobey, and Luke Humphries; regarding the latter two, one had to wonder how they managed to lose, given that-statistically speaking-both were significantly better than their opponents.
Humphries had already fallen 3-8 behind before managing to win four consecutive legs and narrow the gap; however, his opponent, Cameron Menzies, then hit a 98 finish followed by a 170 finish to seal the victory. Even a player of Luke Humphries' caliber struggles to overcome such a large deficit, especially when his opponent is having such a good day as Menzies had. Dobey, meanwhile, had far too much trouble hitting his doubles against Dirk van Duijvenbode- and the Dutchman promptly punished him. And Noppert simply didn't play well enough to put up much of a fight against Cross. So the world's top 16 proved remarkably stable this year, though this also meant the results were fairly predictable. Luke Humphries' elimination was by far the biggest upset of the first round.
On the very first night of the tournament, there was a match that went to a sudden-death leg; Stephen Bunting simply couldn't shake off Niels Zonneveld-even in the tie-break-but ultimately won 13-12. The matches between Price and Schindler, and van Duijvenbode and Dobey, also went to extra legs, which Price and van Duijvenbode won respectively.
Overall, the standard of play in the first round ranged from decent to high; only Andrew Gilding and Luke Woodhouse averaged below 90-with Woodhouse's performance being somewhat surprising in this regard. However, it was the tournament's opening match, and Woodhouse does not seem entirely comfortable on the Blackpool stage.
Although both German competitors were eliminated in the first round, Springer managed to hold his own against Littler for quite some time, and Schindler was clearly the better player for much of the match-at least until Price hit his stride. Unfortunately, Schindler couldn't keep pace in the extra legs, meaning German players continue to wait for a win at the World Matchplay. The last German victory was achieved by Gabriel Clemens against Rob Cross in 2020-which was quite some time ago now.
Pictures with kind allowance of the PDC