James Wade defeats Nathan Aspinall to win Players Championship One

James Wade triumphed 8-6 against a resurgent Nathan Aspinall to win the first Players Championship event of the year.

The 42-year-old overcame a challenging draw that included matchups against major winners Mensur Suljovic and Joe Cullen followed by a semi-final against Michael van Gerwen. Despite trailing in several matches the Machine always fought back and claimed a deserved first PDC title in over seven months.

There were good signs for Nathan Aspinall as well. The 2023 World Matchplay champion fell out of the top 16 in the PDC rankings last year despite winning three European Tour titles.

He also missed out on selection for the Premier League so will be looking to bounce back in 2026 by collecting plenty of prize money from ProTour events.

Michael van Gerwen also continued his excellent start to 2026, narrowly missing out on the final in a last leg decider to Wade. But it was Czech international Adam Gawlas who provided the real surprise of the first ProTour event of the year.

Gawlas regained his tour card in January via an excellent week at Q-School and today made an instant statement. He had an excellent run which included a whitewash against fellow Q-School qualifier Stephen Burton, a 6-5 thriller against Callan Rydz and an impressive showing against world number 27 Wessel Nijman.

He was finally undone by Aspinall in the semi-finals but if the 23-year-old continues in this form he will move he will move up the rankings swiftly.

Other notable successes in Players Championship One included Beau Greaves who has been much talked about as the only current female tour card holder. She made it to the last 16, as did Shane Mcguirk who has made an excellent start to life as a PDC tour card holder.

Finally, a word for Jack Twedell, the world number 98, who made it all the way to the quarterfinals before missing out to van Gerwen in a 6-3 defeat.