The World Series of Darts continues its Southern Hemisphere excursion with the New Zealand Darts Masters on August 16-17.
It’s the penultimate World Series event of the year and the last one before the finals in Amsterdam in September.
After Gerwyn Price wrapped up the Australian event in Wollongong, 16 more hopefuls will battle it out for the penultimate World Series tournament in Hamilton’s GLOBOX Arena.
Here are five players who could have a chance at claiming the prize.
Gerwyn Price
Despite claims he felt ‘absolutely shattered’ at the event, Price wrapped up his second World Series of Darts title of the year in Australia.
Price defeated Brenton Lloyd, Damon Heta, Peter Wright and Luke Littler to claim the top prize in Wollongong in style.
The 39-year-old was in imperious form at the Australian event and coolly dispatched Littler 8-1 in the final.
The Iceman has to be made one of the favourites to win the Hamilton event and pick up his third World Series event heading into the finals in Amsterdam in September.
Price’s first round clash is against hometown favourite Ben Robb.
Luke Littler
Despite his disappointing display in the final against Price, Littler has been impressive in World Series events this year. He has reached four finals in the six World Series events so far.
The Nuke has won two of those events, in Bahrain and Poland, and you can never count out the 17-year-old sensation.
The teenager has often recovered well after disappointing setbacks and he could do the same again in Hamilton.
Littler’s campaign begins against Jonny Tata.
Haupai Puha
Haupai Puha was desperately unlucky not to cause the upset of the tournament in his narrow first-round loss to Rob Cross in Australia.
Puha was 4-1 down to Voltage before almost pulling off a remarkable comeback. Hopes managed to take the game to a deciding leg, which Cross managed to nick, and he was unfortunate to lose the match 6-5.
His performance against a strong opponent will give him confidence heading into his home tournament and he has the chance to get revenge.
The pair meet again in the first round in New Zealand and this time Puha could go one further.
Peter Wright
Snakebite has had a difficult season so far and is yet to win a televised tournament, but Wright is always a tricky player to come up against.
He was impressive in Australia, defeating Simon Whitlock and Cross, and only narrowly losing to eventual winner Price 7-6 in the semi-finals.
With his form on the upturn, the 54-year-old could claim his first TV tournament of the year in Hamilton.
Wright will play World Series debutant Daniel Snookes in the first round.
Dimitri van den Bergh
Dimitri van Den Bergh was also impressive in Australia, making his fourth semi-final of the year.
The UK Open champion narrowly lost 7-6 to Littler in the semi-final and will go into the Hamilton event with confidence.
The 30-year-old is yet to make a World Series final this year and he has every chance to change that in New Zealand.
The Dreammaker will take on Mark Cleaver in the first round.