Stephen Bunting has picked up his maiden PDC World Series of Darts title as he won the 2025 Bahrain Masters. He beat Gerwyn Price 8-4 in the final. Bunting, 39, came off the back of a World Championship semi-final by winning the Bahrain Masters.
The fan-favourite has shown improving form over the last year and finished 2024 fifth in the World Rankings. This was his highest end-of-year ranking, with his previous best being 16th.
Quarter Final Surprises
Humphries 6-5 Aspinall
Bunting 6-0 Dobey
Littler 2-6 Price
Nebrida 4-6 Wright
World Number One Luke Humphries had to fight back from behind to beat Aspinall in the max of 11 legs. He lost the first leg and fell as far as 4-2 behind. He fought back, winning three legs in a row, and checked out from 160 in the eighth.
Bunting cruised to victory with an apparent ease over Dobey. He averaged 111.33 compared to Dobey’s 84.62 and only offered his fellow Englishman one chance to check out, which failed.
The big upset of the quarters came as Gerwyn Price heavily beat new World Champion Luke Littler. Littler had nine checkout opportunities and only hit two, with his best being 74. Both held their opening leg with the throw, but Price won three legs in a row to push to a 4-1 lead. Price broke Littler in the eighth leg to seal his victory.
Wright defeated the only PDC Asia player who made it to the quarters but things didn’t come easily. Four of the first five legs were broken but Wright was able to win the final two legs to hold on to a 6-4 victory.
Semi-final Success
Humphries 6-7 Bunting
Price 7-4 Wright
In the semi-finals, Stephen Bunting came up against World Number One Luke Humphries and trailed for the entire match. He only took the lead when he won the final leg. Humphries had the chance to win the match when sitting with a 6-5 lead, and he had the throw. Both players only had a 50% checkout rate.
Gerwyn Price took an early lead in the semis as he won the first two legs. In the seventh leg he ran out to a 5-2 lead when he checked out from 124. Wright made a push to come back, winning two legs in a row, but Price was able to maintain his cool and win the last two legs to finish 7-4.
Brilliant Final Performance
Bunting won his first World Series of Darts brilliantly. He broke in the first leg and managed to maintain a lead all the way until the end. Price came back within one after seven legs as Bunting led 4-3. But winning two legs in a row allowed Bunting to maintain his control of the match. He checked out from 32 in the final leg to reach the £30,000 prize for the Champion.
He said after the match, “I can’t produce my best darts without this wonderful crowd week in, week out. The fanbase we are building at the moment is crazy and thank you very much.”