Players who were once strangers are now extended members of hundreds of thousands of families.
Ordinarily, a team as old as the Dodgers would have to consider a roster makeover. Freddie Freeman and Miguel Rojas will be 37 by the start of the next World Series. Max Muncy will be 36, Kiké Hernández 35, Mookie Betts and Teoscar Hernández 34 and Shohei Ohtani 32.
But under these circumstances, how could the Dodgers think of breaking up their team?
How could they unload any of their superstars, regardless of how much they could decline in the next year? How could they not retain their key free agents, regardless of how old they are?
They can’t, they can’t and they can’t.
The Dodgers have to run this back — again.
“Obviously, we would love everybody to come back,” Freeman said.
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Muncy has a $10-million team option for next season. The Dodgers have to pick it up.
Rojas and Kiké Hernández are free agents. The Dodgers have to re-sign them.
Freeman won’t be making the calls on his teammates, of course. The decisions will be made by president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman, who was characteristically evasive when asked about the efforts the Dodgers would make to keep their out-of-contract players.
“Obviously, guys who have been here and been a big part of it start with a major upper hand,” Friedman said. “That being said, they’re free agents. They’ve earned the right to go out and talk to the 29 other teams as well.”
Muncy doesn’t have a choice to leave if the Dodgers exercise his option, but Rojas and Kiké Hernández have said they would like to return next season.
Whatever Friedman decides shouldn’t preclude the Dodgers from shopping on the free-agent market, with Kyle Tucker and Steven Kwan being potential additions to their outfield.
But the nucleus of the Dodgers would be even older than it was this year when their collective age presented a variety of problems.
Their 18-inning victory in Game 3 clearly diminished them more than it did the Toronto Blue Jays, who won the next two games. In retrospect, that should have been expected, as the Dodgers struggled to maintain consistency on offense over a grinding six-month regular season.
While Betts transformed into one of the league’s best defensive shortstops, he experienced a sharp offensive decline. Muncy was limited to 100 games because of injuries. Teoscar Hernández wasn’t close to being the same player he was last year.
There were times that even Ohtani started to show the effects of being on the wrong side of 30. Ohtani’s father acknowledged this reality in a congratulatory open letter he wrote to his son, which was published in the Monday edition of Sports Nippon.
“Shohei, you’re 31 years old,” Toru Ohtani wrote in Japanese. “I think that as a baseball player, you’re in your prime, but there will come a time when you have to decide between pitching and hitting. When you can’t pitch anymore, you can be an outfielder. I think that if you practice, you can definitely do it.”
That being said, the team has to be kept together.
A championship can force teams into sentimental decisions, as was the case last winter when the Dodgers re-signed Teoscar Hernández to a three-year, $66-million contract.
This winter, they will have to settle similar disputes between their hearts and minds. They should listen to their hearts.
The celebration had hardly begun, when Shohei Ohtani first voiced the theme of the day.
“I’m already thinking about the third time,” he said in Japanese, standing atop a double-decker bus in downtown Los Angeles with of thousands of blue-clad, flag-waving, championship-celebrating Dodgers fans lining the streets around him for the team’s 2025 World Series parade.
Turns out, he wasn’t alone.
Two days removed from a dramatic Game 7 victory that made the Dodgers baseball’s first repeat champion in 25 years, the team rolled through the streets of downtown and into a sold-out rally at Dodger Stadium on Monday already thinking about what lies ahead in 2026.
With three titles in the last six seasons, their modern-day dynasty might now be cemented.
But their goal of adding to this “golden era of Dodger baseball,” as top executive Andrew Friedman has repeatedly called it, is far from over.
“All I have to say to you,” owner and chairman Mark Walter told the 52,703 fans at the team’s stadium rally, “is we’ll be back next year.”
“I have a crazy idea for you,” Friedman echoed. “How about we do it again?”
When manager Dave Roberts took the mic, he tripled down on that objective: “What’s better than two? Three! Three-peat! Three-peat! Let’s go.”
When shortstop Mookie Betts, the only active player with four World Series rings, followed him, he quadrupled the expectation: “I got four. Now it’s time to fill the hand all the way up, baby. ‘Three-peat’ ain’t never sounded so sweet. Somebody make that a T-shirt.”
For these history-achieving, legacy-sealing Dodgers, Monday was a reminder of the ultimate end goal — the kind of scene that, as they embark on another short winter, will soon fuel their motivations for another confetti-filled parade this time next year.
“For me, winning a championship, the seminal moment of that is the parade,” Friedman said. “The jubilation of doing it, when you get the final out, whatever game you win it in, is special. That night is special. But to be able to take a breath and then experience a parade, in my mind, that is what has always driven me to want to win.”
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“[To] do this for the city, that’s what it’s all about,” first baseman Freddie Freeman added. “There’s nothing that feels as important as winning a championship. And if so happens to be three in a row, that’s what it is. But that’s what’s gonna drive us to keep going.”
Much of the group had been part of the 2020 title team that was denied such a serenade following that pandemic-altered campaign. They had waited four long years to experience a city-wide celebration. The reception they received was sentimental and unique.
Now, as third baseman Max Muncy said with a devious grin from atop a makeshift stage in the Dodger Stadium outfield, “it’s starting to get a little bit comfortable up here. Let’s keep it going.”
“Losing,” star pitcher and World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto added, in English, in a callback to one of his memorable quotes from this past October, “isn’t an option.”
Doing it won’t be easy.
This year, the Dodgers’ win total went down to 93 in an inconsistent regular season. They had to play in the wild-card round for the first time since the playoffs expanded in 2022. And in the World Series, they faced elimination in Games 6 and 7, narrowly winning both to complete their quest to repeat.
“I borderline still can’t believe we won Game 7,” fan favorite Kiké Hernández said in a bus-top interview.
But, he quickly added, “We’re all winners. Winners win.”
Thus, they also get celebrations like Monday’s.
As it was 367 days earlier, the Dodgers winded down a parade route in front of tens of thousands of fans from Temple Street to Grand Avenue to 7th Street to Figueroa. Both on board the double-decker buses and in the frenzied masses below, elation swirled and beverages flowed.
Once the team arrived at Dodger Stadium, it climbed atop a blue circular riser in the middle of the field — the final symbolic steps of their ascent back to the mountaintop of the sport.
Anthony Anderson introduced them to the crowd, while Ice Cube delivered the trophy in a blue 1957 Chevy Bel-Air.
Familiar scenes, they are hoping become an annual tradition.
“Job in 2024, done. Job in 2025, done,” Freeman said. “Job in 2026? Starts now.”
The Dodgers did take time to recognize their newfound place in baseball history, having become just the sixth MLB franchise to win three titles in the span of six years and the first since the New York Yankees of 1998 to 2000 to win in consecutive years.
Where last year’s parade day felt more like an overdue coronation, this one served to crystallize their legacy.
“Everybody’s been asking questions about a dynasty,” Hernández said. “How about three in six years? How about a back-to-back?”
And, on Monday, all the main characters of this storybook accomplishment got their moment in the sun.
There was, as team broadcaster and rally emcee Joe Davis described him, “the Hall of Fame-bound” Roberts, who now only trails Walter Alston in team history with three World Series rings.
“We talked about last year, wanting to run it back,” he said. “And I’ll tell you right now, this group of guys was never gonna be denied to bring this city another championship.”
There was Game 7 hero Miguel Rojas calling up surprise October closer Roki Sasaki, on his birthday, to dance to his “Bailalo Rocky” entrance song; a request Sasaki sheepishly obliged by pumping his fist to the beat.
Yamamoto, coming off his heroic pitching victories in Games 6 and 7, received some of the day’s loudest ovations.
“We did it together,” he said. “I love the Dodgers. I love Los Angeles.”
Muncy, Ohtani and Blake Snell also all addressed the crowd.
“I’m trying to get used to this,” Snell said.
“I’m ready to get another ring next year,” Ohtani reiterated.
One franchise face who won’t be back for that chase: Clayton Kershaw, who rode into the sunset of retirement by getting one last day at Dodger Stadium, fighting back tears as he thanked the crowd at the end of his illustrious (and also Hall of Fame-bound) 18-year career.
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“Last year, I said I was a Dodger for life. And today, that’s true,” Kershaw said. “And today, I get to say that I’m a champion for life. And that’s never going away.”
Kershaw, of course, is one of the few still around from the club’s dark days of the early 2010s, when money was scarce and playoff appearances were uncertain and parades were only things to dream about — not expect.
As he walks away, however, the team has been totally transformed.
Now, the Dodgers have been to 13 straight postseasons. They’ve set payroll records and bolstered their roster with a wave of star signings. They’ve turned the pursuit of championships into a yearly expectation, proud but unsatisfied with what they’ve achieved to this point.
“I think, definitionally, it’s a dynasty,” said Friedman, the architect of this run with the help of Walter’s deep-pocketed Guggenheim ownership group. “But that to me, in a lot of ways, that kind of caps it if you say, ‘OK, this is what it is.’ For me, it’s still evolving and growing. We want to add to it. We want to continue it, and do everything we can to put it at a level where people after us have a hard time reaching.”
On Monday, they raised that bar another notch higher.
“This parade was the most insane thing I’ve ever witnessed, been a part of,” Kershaw said. “It truly is the most incredible day ever to be able to end your career on.”
On Tuesday, the Dodgers’ long road toward holding another one begins.
“I know they’re gonna get one more next year,” Kershaw told the crowd. “And I’m gonna watch, just like all of you.”
The former Seat and Ford driver is part of a Toyota team that have already won the Manufacturers’ World Championship for the fifth year in a row.
And as so often happens in motorsport, Evans’ team-mates are also his closest rivals.
Rovanpera is the youngest ever world champion after winning back-to-back championships in 2022 and 2023.
Now 25 and in his final season before leaving WRC for new challenges, the Finnish driver has already won three rallies this year and will be ready to pounce on any mistakes from his team-mate.
Ogier, 41, is looking to tie Sebastien Loeb’s record of nine WRC titles. The Frenchman has won five rallies this season and led the championship before a crash at last month’s Central European Rally handed the advantage back to the Welshman.
Despite the competition, Evans says relationships are good.
“We all get on fairly well in the team,” he explained.
“Rallying is quite unique in that we’re racing against the clock rather than physically against each other on track.
“That normally means we get on a bit better in the background and the team has a very good atmosphere on the whole.
“Everything is shared among the drivers, so everything is very open and we tend to try and race it out on the stages, so normally we get on pretty well.”
Evans has been competing against the best of the best for years. If he is able to join his team-mates as a world champion the achievement will be monumental.
Fourteen years after his first WRC race he is as close as he has ever been to glory.
Evans will be hoping a journey that started in Dolgellau could have the greatest of endings in Jeddah via Japan.
AVONDALE, Ariz. — Kyle Larson denied Denny Hamlin his first career championship when a late caution at Phoenix Raceway sent the title-deciding finale into overtime.
Hamlin was three laps from shedding the label as the greatest NASCAR driver to never win a championship when fellow title contender William Byron got a flat tire and hit the wall to bring out the caution.
Hamlin led the field down pit road and got four new tires on his Toyota; Larson only took two tires on his Chevrolet. It meant Larson was fifth for the two-lap sprint to the finish, with Hamlin back in 10th.
With so little time to run down Larson, Hamlin came up short with a sixth-place finish as Larson finished third. Ryan Blaney, who was eliminated from title contention last week, won the race.
It is the second championship for Larson, who won his first title in 2021 when he joined Hendrick Motorsports.
As Larson celebrated, Hamlin sat in his car motionless for several seconds, then wiped his face with a white towel, never showing any emotion.
“I’m just numb,” Hamlin said after consoling his crying daughters on pit road. “We were 40 seconds away from a championship. This sport can drive you absolutely crazy because sometimes speed, talent, none of that matters.”
Larson, who has been in a slump since his disastrous Memorial Day attempt to race both the Indianapolis 500 and Coca-Cola 600 on the same day, was also in shock.
“I really can’t believe it. We didn’t lead a lap and won the championship,” Larson said. “We had an average car at best and had the right front [tire] go down, lost a lap and got the wave around, saved by the caution with the wave around. It’s just unbelievable. What a year by this motorsports team.”
When Hamlin finally got out of his car he embraced his crew members but it was a scene of disbelief among the Joe Gibbs Racing crowd. Team members were crying, some sitting in shock on the pavement, Gibbs himself stood silent, one hand on his hip and a look of disbelief on his face.
It is the sixth shot at a title to slip away from Hamlin in his 20 years driving for Gibbs. He led 208 of the 319 laps and started from the pole.
“Nothing I could do different. I mean, prepared as good as I could coming into the weekend and my team gave me a fantastic car,” Hamlin said. “Just didn’t work out. I was just praying ‘no caution’ and we had one there. What can you do? It’s just not meant to be.”
He said crew chief Chris Gayle made the correct call with four tires, but too many others only took two, which created too big of a gap for Hamlin to close on Larson in so little time.
“Just numb. Feel like there’s still some racing left. I can’t believe it’s over but there’s nothing I can do but just suck it up,” Hamlin said. “I just needed 40 more seconds of green flag.”
Larson was OK during the race, but hasn’t won since early May, a slump that has now extended to 24 consecutive races.
Hamlin teammate Chase Briscoe finished 18th in his debut in the championship finale, while Larson teammate Byron was 33rd after his late issue. He felt awful for ruining Hamlin’s chance even though his Hendrick Motorsports teammate won the championship.
“I’m just super bummed that it was a caution obviously. I hate that. Hate it for Denny. I hate it for the 11 team,” Byron said. “I mean, Denny was on his way to it. I hate that. There’s a lot of respect there. I obviously do not want to cause a caution. If I had known what tire it was, known that a tire was going down before I got to the corner, I would have done something different.”
Taylor looked poised for a 4-1 lead but, having potted a red to leave O’Sullivan needing a snooker, he went in-off when potting the black with his next shot.
World number five O’Sullivan made a clearance of 48 to cut the deficit to 3-2.
Taylor won a nervy sixth frame in which both players missed chances, but it was vintage O’Sullivan from that point on as he punished any errors and demonstrated his exceptional cue ball control.
A superb long red got him going in the deciding frame and, with the balls in ideal position, he sealed victory with ease.
O’Sullivan, who turns 50 next month, is selective about the tournaments he competes in.
He has reached the quarter-finals of the Shanghai Masters and Xi’an Grand Prix and the final of the Saudi Arabia Masters this season.
O’Sullivan told the WST website: “It never feels like a grind when you are cueing well.
“I’m enjoying playing more than I have done for maybe over a decade.
“When I play alright, the crowd appreciate the shots and the break-building. When I click into gear, that raises the temperature in there a little bit.”
On Monday, in celebration of the Dodgers becoming baseball’s first back-to-back champion in 25 years, Los Angeles will throw another party for the Dodgers.
The Dodgers’ 2025 championship parade starts Monday at 11 a.m. and runs through downtown, followed by a rally at Dodger Stadium. The rally requires a ticket, which can be obtained starting at noon Sunday at dodgers.com/postseason.
For fans with rally tickets, parking lot gates will open at 8:30 a.m. and stadium gates at 9 a.m. The event is expected to start at about 12:15 p.m.
The parade and rally will be aired live on Channels 2, 4, 5, 7, 9 and 11 as well as SportsNet LA and AM 570, the team said.
In last year’s rally, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts and Ice Cube performed next to one another, with Roberts dancing and Ice Cube singing.
At one point, future Hall of Famer Clayton Kershaw took his turn at the microphone and hollered, “Dodger for life!”
In September, Kershaw announced he would retire at the end of the season. In his only World Series appearance, he got a critical out in the Dodgers’ 18-inning victory in Game 3.
He’ll make his final Dodger Stadium appearance as a player as part of a second consecutive championship rally. He’ll be back: The Dodgers will retire his No. 22 — they retire the number of all their Hall of Famers — and he’d certainly be in line to throw ceremonial first pitches in the Dodgers’ future postseason runs.
For now, though: Three-time champion Dodger for life.
Since the club entered administration, fans have ended a boycott of the club, which had seen many supporters not attend Carabao Cup ties against Leeds United and Grimsby Town at Hillsborough, and this month’s home league game with Middlesbrough.
Administrator Kris Wigfield, who is leading the search for new ownership, said on Monday that supporters had already spent more than £500,000 on tickets and in the club shop.
He said there were already “four or five interested parties that look like the real deal” but that because of EFL rules, the club would need to be on the market for 28 days before they could move towards preferred-bidder status.
“I’m hopeful that by the end of November, if things go well, we might know who’s going to buy the football club,” he told BBC 5 Live’s Wake Up To Money programme.
“Then hopefully a deal can be concluded this calendar year, so that the new owner is in for the January transfer window, if the EFL allows the new owner to buy players.”
Sheffield Wednesday said the event was “a gesture from the first-team squad and staff” to thank supporters for their “unprecedented” response to the club going into administration.
World number one Luke Humphries scraped into November’s Players Championship Finals as reigning world champion Luke Littler criticised tournament officials.
Humphries, 30, began the day 58th in the competition’s rankings and could have missed the finals if he had lost in the opening round of the Players Championship 34 event.
However, he gained a 6-2 victory over Dutchman Martijn Dragt in round one to qualify before losing 6-4 to Rob Owen in the second round at Robin Park Leisure Centre in Wigan.
This was the last of 34 Players Championship events held across the year. The 64 best-performing players will now advance to the finals in Minehead, Somerset from 21-23 November.
It later emerged someone had died in an incident on the M6.
Afterwards, Littler posted on Instagram: “Missed registration today for the pro tour, but someone sadly lost their life. Thinking of everyone.”
He reached the last 32 on Thursday before losing 6-5 in a deciding leg against Canada’s Matt Campbell – and then criticised officials in a post on social media, claiming other players had been allowed to play when arriving late for events.
In an Instagram post, which was later deleted, Littler wrote: “Not the best day today but played some decent stuff.
“But really glad to hear from a few of the other players that people have been let in almost half an hour late for a pro tour but I can’t be two minutes late.
“Says a lot, one rule for one and one for another.”
Dutchman Wessel Nijman beat England’s Luke Woodhouse 8-5 to win the Players Championship 34 title.
Three-time world champion and current world number three Michael van Gerwen will not feature at the finals as he was outside the top 64 in the rankings and did not play the last two events.
World champion Luke Littler was denied entry to Wednesday’s Players Championship 33 event after he arrived late because of traffic congestion caused by a serious incident.
The 18-year-old was set to play in the penultimate Players Championship event of 2025 at Wigan’s Robin Park Leisure Centre.
But he had to withdraw after missing the 11:00 GMT registration deadline for players.
It later emerged someone had died in an incident on the M6.
Littler posted on Instagram: “Missed registration today for the pro tour, but someone sadly lost their life. Thinking of everyone.”
Littler was replaced by fellow Englishman Charlie Manby, who is ranked 174th in the PDC’s order of merit. He upset 2018 world champion Rob Cross 6-5, before being knocked out in the second round.
The event was won by England’s Chris Dobey, who beat Ireland’s William O’Connor 8-6 in the final to leapfrog Cross to eighth in the order of merit.
McLaren’s Lando Norris avoided early mayhem to cruise to a dominant Mexico City Grand Prix win and retake the Formula One championship lead by a single point from teammate Oscar Piastri on Sunday.
Australia’s Piastri, who started the race seventh and 14 points clear of the Briton, finished fifth after a virtual safety car in the last two laps denied him a shot at fourth after a thrilling chase.
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Charles Leclerc was runner-up for Ferrari, a hefty 30.3 seconds adrift of Norris, while Red Bull’s reigning champion Max Verstappen took third – just 0.7 behind the Monegasque driver.
Norris, who started from pole position and led every lap, now has 357 points to Piastri’s 356, with Verstappen on 321 and four rounds remaining.
“What a race. I could just keep my eyes focused and forward and focus on what I was doing,” said Norris, who was booed by the home crowd for reasons that remained unclear.
“A pretty straightforward race for me, which is just what I was after. A good start, a good launch, a good first lap, and I could go from there.”
McLaren’s Lando Norris races in the lead, ahead of Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc, during the Mexico City Formula One Grand Prix [Yuri Cortex/AFP]
Norris turns championship frontrunner
Norris last led the drivers’ standings in April, a gap of 189 days, and had not won a race since Hungary in early August. Sunday was his sixth victory of the season, one less than Piastri, and his 10th career win.
“I felt like the whole race I was right behind someone and struggling with the dirty air. That was pretty difficult,” said Piastri.
“Today was about trying to limit the damage, but also trying to learn some things about that. If I’ve made some progress with that, I’ll be happy.”
Oliver Bearman was fourth for Haas, a best result for the Briton and also the US-owned team, and was 1.1 seconds clear of Piastri at a chequered flag waved by former heavyweight boxing champion Evander Holyfield.
“I held off Max in the first stint, I held off the Mercs in the second, and I held off the McLaren in the third one,” the rookie said.
“I spent more time looking in my rearview mirrors than in front. But that’s sometimes how it has to be.”
Kimi Antonelli was sixth for Mercedes, with teammate George Russell seventh and Lewis Hamilton eighth for Ferrari after a 10-second penalty dropped him from third and dashed his hopes of a first podium for the team he joined in January.
Esteban Ocon was ninth, making a double points finish for Haas, and Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleto took the final point.
Haas driver Oliver Bearman recorded a career-best fourth position at the Mexico City Grand Prix [Alfredo Estrella/Pool via Reuters]
Ferrari moves back into second place
The top three all completed the race on a one-stop strategy, while Bearman, Piastri and the Mercedes drivers all pitted twice.
Ferrari moved back into second place, a point ahead of Mercedes, in a constructors’ championship already won by McLaren but with a tight scrap for the runner-up slot.
Norris made a clean start from pole when the lights went out, but was caught in a four-way tussle down the long run to turn one, with Verstappen cutting the corner and bumping over the grass.
Leclerc then cut turn two, giving the place back to Norris, who emerged from the chaos ahead, while Verstappen gained a place in fourth to the intense irritation of Russell.
“I got squeezed like crazy,” said Verstappen over the team radio as Russell, who started fourth, called in vain for the four-time world champion to hand the place back.
A scary incident saw Racing Bulls’ Liam Lawson, who came in for a new front wing on lap three, accelerate out of the pits as two marshals ran across the track in front of him.
Verstappen and third-placed Hamilton made contact on lap six as they went side by side with the Red Bull driver trying to go past at turn one, but ending up cutting the next corner.
Hamilton went off at turn four, cutting back across the grass, and was handed a penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage.
Bearman, meanwhile, climbed to fourth, from ninth at the start, and looked on for a podium once Hamilton took his penalty on lap 24, only to be reeled in by Verstappen.
While Norris enjoyed a calm afternoon in the sunshine, Piastri had to fight back from a low of 11th after his first stop, passing Antonelli in the pits and Russell on track.
The virtual safety car was deployed after Williams’s Carlos Sainz, last year’s winner for Ferrari, spun and stopped on track on the penultimate lap with smoke coming from it.
Norris celebrates after winning the Mexico City Grand Prix [Eloisa Sanchez/Reuters]
Dutchman Gian van Veen shocked world number one Luke Humphries to win his first PDC title at the European Championship in Dortmund.
The 23-year-old beat countryman and four-time champion Michael van Gerwen 11-9 in the semi-finals before holding his nerve to come through a tense match with Humphries 11-10.
“I said it to my girlfriend when I walked on stage, whenever I win my first TV title I wouldn’t cry – and here I am crying,” Van Veen told ITV Sport.
“I will never forget this moment or even this crowd. It is phenomenal to win my first major in Germany.
“I said to Luke after the game, when he hit the bull to go 10-10, that is why he is world number one. That’s how amazing person Luke is. It is definitely a night to never forget.”
Great Britain’s Josh Tarling produces a blistering display to win his first track world title in the men’s 40km points race at the UCI Track World Championships.
A notice was filed with the insolvency and companies court at the High Court on Friday morning and the Championship club will now face a 12-point deduction.
Staff have been briefed, while administrators also held a meeting with players. The Owls host Oxford United at Hillsborough on Saturday (15:00 BST).
BBC Sport has contacted Sheffield Wednesday and the EFL for comment.
Littler closed the gap on Humphries when he won the World Grand Prix earlier this month, saying afterwards: “Obviously, until I get that world number one spot, I will never call myself the best in the world.
“I don’t want to think about it too much, but I could be world number one before that World Championship.
“I’ve just got to keep chucking away and put as much pressure as I can on Luke.”
Littler begins his European Championship campaign against five-time world champion Raymond van Barneveld, 58, on Friday.
Humphries, 30, faces Pole Krzysztof Ratajski in the first round and could potentially meet Littler in the quarter-finals.
A day after his Grand Prix victory, Littler was beaten in the World Youth Championship semi-finals by Beau Greaves, before he then won the Players Championship 32 event.
He has also announced a new management deal with Target Darts after splitting with Martin Foulds of ZXF Sports Management, who had managed him for five years.
Littler will hope to improve his recent record in Germany, where he has skipped some tournaments after facing a hostile reception from spectators. He was booed alongside Humphries when the pair lost to Germany at the World Cup of Darts in Frankfurt in June.
After the European Championship, there are two big tournaments before the World Championship starts on 11 December – the Grand Slam of Darts (8-16 November) and Players Championship Finals (21-23 November).
She has informed the WDF she will not be playing in the women’s championship, which starts on 28 November
A WDF statement said: “Although Beau will no longer be competing on the Lakeside stage, we wish her all the best in the next stage of her darting career.
“She has been a fantastic ambassador for our system since we returned from the pandemic in 2021, winning every major WDF title on the way.
“It’s been fantastic to see how her game has gone from strength to strength playing in WDF events and we know that she’ll continue to make even more history on the PDC circuit.”
A minimum of four women will compete at the PDC World Championship after a new qualifying structure was announced.
This year’s event will have an expanded field of 128 players, up from 96 in 2024-25, with the winner taking home £1m of a £5m prize pot.
Fallon Sherrock, the only woman to have won matches in the tournament – in 2019 – is the only other female player to have qualified so far.
With seeded players entering the tournament in the first round, rather than the second, Greaves and Sherrock could meet one of the top men.
After starting with four pars, Lowry – who is without an individual victory since September 2022 – carded back-to-back birdies at the fifth and sixth holes.
The former Open champion vaulted into a share of the lead with a run of five straight birdies from the par-four 11th before picking up a shot at the last to edge ahead of Nakajima.
“It’s not that hard when you hit it in play out there, but you start missing fairways it becomes quite tricky, so I’m happy with that,” said Lowry.
He added: “You need to shape it around the course, hit it in position off the tee and it’s all about your iron play. That’s one of my strengths and I took advantage of that today and managed to roll a few putts in on the back nine, which was nice.”
Lowry added there was a “little bit” of Ryder Cup chat with playing partners Fleetwood and Donald.
“We could hear the horns from the road, it was not as off-putting as the Bethpage [Black] crowd,” he said with a smile, referring to the hostile New York fans at last month’s Ryder Cup.
Fleetwood mixed four birdies, an eagle and two bogeys to sit four shots back.
Donald, who is playing his first tournament since his second Ryder Cup success as captain, carded five birdies and a bogey to match fellow Englishman Fleetwood and 2023 Open champion Brian Harman.
Playing with McIlroy, US Ryder Cup player Ben Griffin opened with a 68 while McIlroy’s European team-mate Viktor Hovland signed for a 71.
Beau Greaves emerged victorious from a 6-5 thriller against Luke Littler as she became the first woman to reach the final of the World Youth Championship.
The 18-year-old had breezed through his three matches in the round-robin phase of the event, with wins over Dutchman Jeffrey Keen, Iceland’s Alexander Thorvaldsson and Belgium’s Matthias Moors.
However, the world champion put in a below-par last-16 display against fellow Englishman Charlie Manby.
Littler was on the brink of defeat at 5-3 down to the 20-year-old, before winning the next three legs, then rediscovered his touch in the quarter-finals with a 6-1 victory over Jamai van den Herik of the Netherlands.
Warrington teenager Littler found himself 2-1 down in the semi-final against Greaves but responded by winning three consecutive legs to seize the upper hand.
But three-time WDF women’s world champion Greaves – who is set to accept a PDC Tour card for 2026-27 – rallied to level the match at 4-4 and 5-5.
Greaves then blew Littler away in the decider as she threw an 11-dart leg – the 21-year-old from Doncaster sealing victory with a checkout of 80.
She will meet defending champion Gian van Veen in next month’s final after the Dutchman, 23, clinched a 6-4 win over Sebastian Bialecki of Poland in the other semi-final.
The World Youth Championship final will be played on 23 November in Minehead, before the Players Championship final on the same day.
Littler, who averaged 107.4 to Greaves’ 105, posted on Instagram after his defeat: “Fair play to Beau. All the best in Minehead. Some talent.”
Players aged between 16 and 24 are eligible to compete in the World Youth Championship.
Littler won the youth title in 2023 aged 16, a few weeks before he burst into the spotlight by finishing runner-up at the 2024 World Championship.
Luke Littler will return to defend his titleCredit: Reuters
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Luke Humphries will be looking to regain the title at Ally PallyCredit: PA
World Darts Championship 2025 tickets and prices
StubHub are offering tickets for sale for every session of the tournament, at the time of writing.
The cheapest tickets available are currently priced at £145 per person for the evening session on Thursday, December 18.
There are tickets on the site available at a range of prices.
Tickets for the final, for example, are priced from £380 at the time of writing – these are for seats on the outskirts rather than a table in the middle.
The cheapest table seats for the final start at £940 each.
For those looking for hospitality tickets, Seat Unique is offering packages – although is asking for those interested to register their interest.
There is no pricing available at the time of writing, with details expected soon.
Are tickets for the World Darts Championship still on sale?
Yes, tickets are available, but fans will have to buy from secondary ticketing sites.
PDCTV annual members were able to have first dibs at tickets during a pre-sale.
That took place on August 4 and August 5, 2025.
There was then the chance for others to put their name into a free-to-enter ticket ballot.
Registrations for the ballot opened on August 6 and then closed on August 15.
Tickets are now available on third-party ticketing sites, although the PDC have previously warned fans about purchasing tickets this way.
