Motomu Sakai, the flamboyant Japanese darter who won fans' hearts at the last World Darts Championship, is heading back to the Alexandra Palace. Ahead of a World Series of Darts Finals debut next weekend, Sakai was one of five players to secure a trip to London this December via the PDC Asian Tour.
The Asian Tour concluded on 12 and 13 September with Events 25 through 28. Ryuta Arihara signed off in style, topping the final standings to earn his PDC World Darts Championship debut. The first title of the closing weekend went to Rolly Gabiana on Saturday, who convincingly beat China's Xiaochen Zong 5-1 in the Event 25 final to claim his first Asian Tour title. Gabiana had to work much harder on his route to the decider, needing a last-leg decider against both Arihara and Joel Hizon. In his semi-final versus Hizon, Gabiana even trailed 4-2, but managed to turn the match around.
Later on Saturday, Arihara denied Gabiana a quickfire second title of the weekend, winning Event 26 with a 5-3 victory in the final to take his season tally to five Asian Tour titles. Arihara had already shown a notably high level earlier in the tournament, averaging a superb 113.64 against Eduardo Jr. Largo with legs of 16, 12, 15, and 11 darts to seal a dominant 4-1 win. After victories over Christian De Los Reyes and Junlong Yin, Arihara booked his place in the final by beating Man Lok Leung in the semi-finals. Leung made his competitive return in China after a spell out through illness.
Leung's World Cup partner, Lok Yin Lee, got to celebrate a title himself a day later, taking Event 27 by beating De Los Reyes 5-2 in the final. In the semi-finals, Lee proved too strong for Malaysia's Norhisame Bin Wahab, and his campaign began with a win over Ryusei Azemoto, who previously featured at the World Darts Championship. The final title of the Asian Tour season went to Alexis Toylo. The Filipino topped the Asian Tour ranking in each of the previous two years, but this time his Event 28 victory was not enough to secure another ticket to Alexandra Palace. Toylo beat compatriot Lourence Ilagan in the final, trailing 3-1 before rattling off four straight legs to wrap up the title. Earlier, he had whitewashed Sakai in the last 16.
Arihara ended the season as number one on the Asian Tour ranking, finishing ahead of fellow Japanese player Sakai. For Arihara, that means he will make his first career appearance at the World Darts Championship. Christian Perez finished third in the standings, and the former PDC Asian Champion can therefore prepare for his fifth outing at Alexandra Palace. Muramatsu and Lee also finished high enough to qualify. That means Arihara, Sakai, Perez, Muramatsu, and Lee are the five players who have secured World Darts Championship spots via the PDC Asian Tour.
