Rob Cross – Richard Veenstra: 6-3
After Richard Veenstra raced to a win in the first leg with a D12 finish from 84, former world champion Rob Cross grabbed the following two legs from 16 and 74 after Veenstra failed to finish from 78.
The Dutchman held his own leg thereafter with a clean finish from 97 and turned the game around with a stellar 110 finish on D18, leading the game with two breaks and a 3-2 score.
Cross, however, returned the favour right back from 18 and retook the initiative in the game with a ruthless 12-dart leg and finish from 98, leaving the score at 4-3.
Yet another break by an unleashed Cross left Veenstra hoping for a sudden meltdown after the Englishman took a two-leg lead with a 100-finish.
Veenstra couldn’t manage to convert some rare opportunities late on with Cross unable to get a clean finish off at 32 and clinched a first-round victory over Veenstra after winning the last four legs in quick succession.
Nathan Aspinall - Kevin Doets: 1-6
It was the Dutch home hero who struck first yet again as Kevin Doets profited from a failed 122-finish from Nathan Aspinall and broke the Asp's first leg from 45 and then converted from 40 as Aspinall failed to bag a 92-finish.
It took Aspinall three legs to find his first successful finish, but the Englishman wasn't left with much joy for any longer as Doets held on to his own leg and produced a moment of magnificence with a perfect finish from 138, taking the lead by a double break.
An untimely bouncer couldn't stop Doets from taking a 5-1 lead with a finish from 100 out as the Dutchman saw Aspinall lose any grip over the match before taking the cake with a clinical finish from 64, thus becoming the first Dutchman to take victory at the 2025 Dutch Darts Masters.
With the win, Doets set up a meeting with Gerwyn Price in Saturday's quarter-finals.
Stephen Bunting - Gian van Veen: 6-5
Crowd favourite Stephen Bunting earned yet another win after beating the upcoming Dutchman Gian van Veen in a 6-5 thriller in 's Hertogenbosch.
After another thunderous walk-on to the tune of David Guetta's 'Titanium', Stephen Bunting raced to an 11-dart finish and a 1-0 lead over reigning world youth champion Gian van Veen.
A more sloppy leg from Bunting gave Van Veen the opportunity to get back in it, but both players adamantly defended their legs until Bunting broke Van Veen's third leg after the Dutchman couldn't bring home a 65-finish.
The 22-year-old wasn't going down without a fight and from a 5-2 score, Van Veen grabbed the following two legs from 84 and 45 in order to get back to within one leg and eventually even equalised after Bunting couldn't finish the job from 121.
Van Veen took control again in the deciding leg and set put his first finish on a 46, but Bunting showed his class with the last three darts of the match as he stopped Van Veen's resurgence and won his fifth consecutive match.
Chris Dobey - Raymond van Barneveld: 5-6
Raymond van Barneveld (57) hit big in his first match of 2025, beating Chris Dobey 5-6 after a sensational battle.
A high-intensity match started in Chris Dobey's favour when the World Championship semi-finalist landed a finish from 54 after home favourite Raymond van Barneveld failed to convert from 61.
With both players holding off breaks in the following two legs, Dobey struck first by breaking Barney from 60 but got hit right back with a 76-finish to even the breaks out again.
A ruthless 138 finish from Dobey gave the Englishman the confidence to take on Van Barneveld, but the veteran Dutchman didn't let himself get beaten down and fought back from 96 to even out the match yet again.
With Dobey down and a golden opportunity for Van Barneveld to potentially serve for the match, the famed Dutchman made a critical error hitting the double 1 and strandig himself in the middle of an 82-finish.
Dobey couldn't manage to finish either after missing two darts on the double 5, but it was the former five-time world champion who put himself out of it again by hitting a double 13 on a 16-finish. The Englishman made the most of it and didn't give the Dutchman another shot, finishing from 5.
A decider was still coming after Van Barneveld won his own leg and the Dutchman took it in fantastic fashion, finishing from 144 to cap a thriller off with a stunning leg in front of a crowd counting 2,000+.
With the win, Van Barneveld set up a match with Bahrain Masters winner Stephen Bunting in the quarter-finals.
Gerwyn Price - Danny Noppert: 6-2
Gerwyn Price has booked his spot in the second round, beating Danny Noppert in emphatic fashion with 6 legs to 2.
Gerwyn Price and Danny Noppert had a big shoes to fill after the clash between Dobey and Van Barneveld and lived up to the hype when Price won his first two legs with finishes from 74 and 112, though the Freeze put up a fair fight and didn't let the Welshman get out of his sights.
It wasn't until the sixth leg that Price took off after hitting a brutal 124-finish and running away with the victory shortly after, rewarding himself for a match in which he averaged 101.85 and hit 50 percent of his checkouts.
Price will meet Dutchman Kevin Doets in the quarter-finals.
Luke Humphries - Jermaine Wattimena: 3-6
Jermaine Wattimena saw off former world champion Luke Humphries in the first round of the Dutch Darts Masters, winning the match 3-6 after winning five straight legs in the middle of the match.
A faltering Jermaine Wattimena couldn't get off to a good start after being unable to finish from 106, 20, 5, and 2, handing Humphries a quick first break of the game from 16.
Having hit an 80-finish, Humphries thought he'd be off to a rather comfortable win but the Dutchman thought otherwise and took his first leg by profiting from mistakes Humphries copied from Wattimena.
A ruthless comeback was in the making when Wattimena hit consecutive 136 and 111 checkouts before hitting a 78 to break Humphries and jump to a 2-4 lead.
With Wattimena winning the seventh leg and his fifth in a row, Humphries looked all but beaten down after
A terrible miss saw Wattimena hit the outer rim on the second-to-last shot of the game, but the Dutchman remained calm and eliminated the world number 1 by hitting a double 12 and capping off a phenomenal display with a 98.86 average.
With the win, Wattimena sets up a meeting with former world champion Rob Cross in Saturday's quarter-finals.
Michael van Gerwen - Dirk van Duijvenbode: 6-1
The Dutch clash between World Championship finalist Michael van Gerwen and Dirk van Duijvenbode has ended in a 6-1 win for the former world champion after a storming display.
The Green Machine left nothing up to luck from the start, finishing from 68 and handing Van Duijvenbode his only leg win from 56 before storming away with a littany of 130+ turns.
Van Gerwen's break in the fourth leg finished off Van Duijvenbode who only averaged 88 and got one attempt at a checkout in the entire match.
Mighty Mike would end the match with five consecutive leg wins, only having to finish from 60 and below in order to book a spot in the quarter-finals and potentially setting up a World Championship rematch against Luke Littler.
Luke Littler - Dimitri Van den Bergh: 6-4
Dimitri Van den Bergh's tournament came to an early end after Luke Littler stopped a Van den Bergh comeback and snatched a 6-4 win in the first round of the Dutch Darts Masters.
Teenage prodigy Luke Littler got off to a hot start, capturing a 134 finish en route to a 2-0 lead after two legs.
Belgian Van den Bergh, who changed his walk-on song before the tournament, hit back twice to even things out with an 89-finish and his first break of the night.
After exchanging breaks, Van den Bergh took his first lead of the match with a feisty 87-finish and seemingly taking back control over the match.
But as he's done many times before, Littler found another gear as soon as adversity came his way and the Nuke stormed to a 6-4 win after noting down finishes from 102, 32, and 51.
A rematch of the World Championship final awaits 's Hertogenbosch Saturday evening as Michael van Gerwen will take on Luke Littler in his home tournament.