Wessel Nijman maintained his imperious form by clinching his third ranking title of 2026 at Players Championship Eight in Leicester.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nijman defied a barrage of maximums from Joe Cullen to prevail in last night’s decider at the Mattioli Arena, running out an 8-4 winner to cement top spot on the Players Championship rankings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Dutchman has made a scintillating start to the new season, winning Players Championship Two before celebrating a maiden European Tour triumph in Goettingen earlier this month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nijman has now made three finals in just six Players Championship appearances in 2026, and his latest victory marks his fifth ranking title since October.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I’m living the dream life,”\u00a0admitted Nijman, who underlined his status as the top seed in Leicester.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“This week was the first time I was the number one seed, so that was pretty special for me to be honest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“With the way I’m playing, especially in the floor events, I’m feeling pretty confident and this helps a lot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I’m so just happy I played the way I did today.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nijman signalled his intent in an opening round demolition of Dominik Gruellich, averaging 103.57 before fending off a late fightback from Thomas Lovely to seal his spot in round three.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Following a whitewash win over Poland’s Tytus Kanik, Nijman then edged past an in-form Keane Barry to book his spot in the quarter-finals, where he launched a stunning fightback to deny Dave Chisnall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The 25-year-old rattled off five consecutive legs from 4-1 adrift to advance with an average of 105.11, although he was forced to survive two match darts in his all-Dutch semi-final clash against Kevin Doets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This set up a tantalising tussle against Cullen for the title, and there was nothing to separate the pair in the opening exchanges, as the pair traded five successive holds of throw.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nijman established control with clinical 96 and 121 finishes to lead 4-2 and 5-3, yet Cullen continued to respond, landing a flurry of 180s to preserve his title hopes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, Cullen’s hopes evaporated when he squandered nine darts at double to cut the deficit in leg 11, and Nijman duly capitalised, moving 7-4 ahead before wrapping up proceedings with a 14-dart break.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Despite falling short in his bid for a tenth Players Championship crown, Cullen put in his best showing of 2026 so far to pocket the \u00a310,000 runner-up prize in Leicester.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Following inauspicious wins over Samuel Price and former World Champion Michael Smith, the former Masters champion recorded deciding-leg wins against Damon Heta and Tom Sykes respectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cullen averaged 103 in seeing off Sykes, which he backed up with impressive victories against rising star Charlie Manby and Poland’s number two Sebastian Bialecki in the latter stages of Tuesday’s play.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bialecki’s run to the semi-finals featured resounding 6-2 wins over Kim Huybrechts and Daryl Gurney, while he also dispatched Germany’s Leon Weber 6-1 in the quarter-finals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Doets won through deciding-leg affairs against Jonny Clayton, Richard Veenstra and Chris Dobey to seal his spot in the last four, only to be denied a place in his first ranking final since September 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dobey was featuring in the quarter-finals for a second straight day alongside Manby, who claimed the scalps of Scottish icon Gary Anderson and Premier League star Stephen Bunting en route.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Weber dumped out former World Matchplay champions Peter Wright and Nathan Aspinall in reaching his first ranking quarter-final of 2026, while Chisnall completed the last eight line-up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The six-time TV finalist produced the performance of the day at the Mattioli Arena, averaging 111.72 in his 6-1 thumping of Germany’s number one Martin Schindler.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Schindler succumbed at the same stage as Dutch superstar Michael van Gerwen and Welsh number one Clayton, who were beaten by Mervyn King and Doets respectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Monday’s champion Ryan Searle suffered an opening round defeat at the hands of Christian Kist, with Gary Anderson and Rob Cross also exiting at the same stage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The 2026 PDC ProTour season will continue with the German Darts Grand Prix in Munich from April 4-6, before the next instalment of Players Championship action takes place in Wigan on April 13-14. Quarter-Finals: <\/strong>Wessel Nijman 6-4 Dave Chisnall; Kevin Doets 6-5 Chris Dobey; Joe Cullen 6-4 Charlie Manby; Sebastian Bialecki 6-1 Leon Weber<\/p>\n\n\n\n Semi-Finals<\/strong>: Wessel Nijman 7-6 Kevin Doets; Joe Cullen 7-4 Sebastian Bialecki<\/p>\n\n\n\n Final<\/strong>: Wessel Nijman 8-4 Joe Cullen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Wessel Nijman maintained his imperious form by clinching his third ranking title of 2026 at Players Championship Eight<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11092,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[59],"class_list":["post-11091","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsbeat","tag-darts"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t
RESULTS
Last 16: <\/strong>Wessel Nijman 6-5 Keane Barry; Dave Chisnall 6-5 Mervyn King; Chris Dobey 6-1 Wesley Plaisier; Kevin Doets 6-5 Richard Veenstra; Charlie Manby 6-4 Stephen Bunting; Joe Cullen 6-5 Tom Sykes; Sebastian Bialecki 6-2 Daryl Gurney;Leon Weber 6-3 Sietse Lap<\/p>\n\n\n\n