The draw has been confirmed for Players Championship 28, which takes place on Wednesday afternoon at the Mattioli Arena in Leicester. Luke Littler is set to continue his Minehead quest after losing out late yesterday, with 128 players competing for the 28th Players Championship title of the season from 13:00 BST. This is the second half of a double-header, following Jermaine Wattimena's victory in the first event yesterday.
Littler skipped the opening 26 Players Championship events of the season and only got up to 141st after his opening foray. He plays Stephen Rosney today. The appearance follows Littler's World Matchplay triumph in July, after which he confirmed his intention to return to the ProTour and chase the ranking money required to defend his Minehead title. However, after losing to Jermaine Wattimena, his gamble of playing a few events then not playing again won't work, and he will likely need to return later in the ProTour season to accrue the money he needs to reach Minehead.
Littler is joined today by Luke Humphries, one of only a few players to have won multiple ProTour titles this season, albeit he lost early yesterday. Humphries faces Mario Vandenbogaerde early on. Michael van Gerwen takes on Ted Evetts after an abject early loss on the opening day. Beau Greaves faces Andy Boulton after making history as a first-time ProTour winner earlier in the season. Peter Wright faces Jeffrey de Graaf, and Nathan Aspinall faces Oskar Lukasiak.
Other notable first-round matches include Gabriel Clemens vs Christopher Wickenden, Danny Noppert vs Leon Weber, Daryl Gurney vs Bradley Brooks, Dirk van Duijvenbode vs Mike De Decker, Jermaine Wattimena vs Thomas Lovely, Kim Huybrechts vs Steve Lennon, Ricky Evans vs Sietse Lap, Luke Woodhouse vs Jim Long, Cameron Menzies vs Dennie Olde Kalter, Ritchie Edhouse vs Daniel Ayres, Christian Kist vs Viktor Tingstrom, Andrew Gilding vs Scott Williams, Chris Dobey vs Cor Dekker, Martin Schindler vs Jack Aldridge, Michael Smith vs Martin Lukeman, Dave Chisnall vs James Hurrell, and Niko Springer vs Raymond van Barneveld.
A big day awaits, albeit for Littler it is more about adding to his total than getting towards Minehead today, as that is still out of reach.
