Jeffrey Sparidaans and Rhian O'Sullivan punched their tickets to the 2025 WDF World Championships at Lakeside later this year as they came through record-breaking fields to win 2025 WDF Dutch Open titles.
Sparidaans outlasts 4,000+ other men to claim title glory on home soil
More than 4,000 men kicked off the Dutch Open in Assen on Saturday morning hoping to win the biggest open in world darts. By Sunday evening, 13 wins later, only one was left standing: Jeffrey Sparidaans.
'Jefke' hadn't won a WDF title in six years prior to this weekend and began his campaign at De Bonte Wever as an unseeded player in the round of 8192.
He won that game 3-0 and powered through another 11 opponents before defeating America's charismastic David Fatum 3-0 in an entertaining final.
Sparidaans opened up the final with a 92 finish for a 14-darter and took the first set 3-0 with a 90+ average.
The second set was much more even, with all five legs being breaks of throw. Fatum found impressive 15 and 16-dart legs but it was Sparidaans who took it to double his advantage, sealing the set with a two-dart 76 finish.
The third set also went all the way but it was again Sparidaans who found the outer ring when it mattered most, pinning double eight with the first dart in hand to seal a 3-0 win with an average just north of 83.
Sparidaans had won six games on Saturday for the loss of just three legs. Sunday was largely plain sailing too for the Dutchman, although he did have to ride his luck in the Last 64 when he faced six match darts from Corne Groenveld before winning 4-3.
From there, he whitewashed Vincent van der Meer and beat Daniel Zapata to reach the televised finals. In the last eight, he defied three maximums from Mario Robbe to win 5-2 with an 85.74 average.
He was even more impressive in the semis, winning five legs on the spin to defeat Danny van Trijp two sets to nil with six maximums to his credit and an 89.61 average.
As for Fatum, he was enjoyed a second final of the year after a great debut in Assen. He had to come through a trio of last-leg deciders on Sunday, including in the Last 32 when he came from behind and survived match darts to dump out top seed Jimmy van Schie.
On the stage, Fatum began the afternoon's action with a 5-3 victory over Luitsen Elzinga before defeating Martijn Kleermaker 2-0 in the semis despite averaging six points less than his tall opponent.
2024 champion Jarno Bottenberg saw his campaign end in the Last 32, where he led against Ramon Leferink but missed match darts and was eventually beaten 4-3.
Men's Dutch Open | Quarter-Finals
David Fatum 5-3 Luitsen Elzinga
Martijn Kleermaker 5-0 Berry Pater
Jeffrey Sparidaans 5-2 Mario Robbe
Danny van Trijp 5-1 Thomas Junghans
Semi-Finals
Fatum 2-0 Kleermaker
Sparidaans 2-0 van Trijp
Final
Sparidaans 3-0 Fatum
O'Sullivan breaks Assen curse to seal Lakeside return
It had never quite worked out for Rhian O'Sullivan in Assen before this weekend, with the Wales captain recording quarter-final, semi-final and final runs in her three previous trips.
In 2025, she went all the way to claim her second ranking title of the year and guarantee an automatic return to the Women's World Championship.
Two weeks earlier, O'Sullivan missed match darts to win the Las Vegas Open. In Assen, she had to survive match darts against both Aileen de Graaf and Beau Greaves before dominating the final against Lerena Rietbergen.
O'Sullivan didn't drop a leg before the Last 16, where she beat Natalie Gilbert 4-2. That set up a meeting with de Graaf, which O'Sullivan won 4-3, and she repeated the scoreline in the semis against 2024 winner Greaves, producing finishes of 96, 98 and 100 before pipping her with a 17-darter in the decider.
That booked a final with Rietbergen, who had won a title the weekend before in Romania and had seen off the likes of Anca Zijlstra and Lorraine Hyde to reach her 11th WDF final in the last 12 months.
The Welshwoman recorded an early break of throw as she raced into a 3-0 lead before Rietbergen got on the board with a 96 finish. The younger player was unable to make further inroads, as although she punished missed match darts in the sixth leg, she was powerless in the seventh as O'Sullivan took out 57 to seal a 5-2 victory with a 73.46 average.
Women's Dutch Open | Quarter-Finals
Beau Greaves 4-0 Paige Pauling
Rhian O'Sullivan 4-3 Aileen de Graaf
Lerena Rietbergen 4-2 Anca Zijlstra
Lorraine Hyde 4-0 Lisa Zollikofer
Semi-Finals
O'Sullivan 4-3 Greaves
Rietbergen 4-0 Hyde
Final
O'Sullivan 5-2 Rietbergen
Former World Champ van der Velden strikes to win Dutch Open
Bradley van der Velden hadn't been in the winners' circle on the WDF circuit since winning the Boys' World Championship in 2023 but he's back there now after a fantastic title run in Assen.
'Wolfpack' only dropped two legs in his first four games before defeating Nikolas Wirtz 3-2 in the Last 16. He then saw off Wirtz's compatriot Finn Mocha in the quarter-finals, which he followed up with a whitewash victory over fellow Dutch teen Daan Toxopeus to reach the stage final.
There, he was facing Belgium's Oden Ollevier, who'd beaten Florian Preis, statistically the most impressive Youth player in Assen, in the other semi.
Ollevier took a 2-1 lead before van der Velden turned it round by winning three legs on the spin to triumph 4-2 with a 74.62 average.
Pauling flawless as she retains title
Reigning WDF Girls' World Champion Paige Pauling remains in a class of her own in 2025, successfully defending her Dutch Open title without dropping a leg.
The 16-year-old kicked off her campaign with a 3-0 victory over Samin Salehzadeh, a result she repeated against Julia Soennichsen, Phoebe Vermeulen and finally Merve Hummel to claim the title.
Photos: NDB (Jos Groen & Bas van den Berk)
