Jermaine Wattimena

Jermaine Wattimena (born 9 March 1988) is a Dutch professional darts player who competes in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events, where he reached a peak ranking of world number sixteen in 2026. A PDC Tour Card holder since 2015, he reached his first major final in 2024, finishing as runner-up at the European Championship. He won his first two PDC ranking titles in 2025 Players Championship events and added a third at Players Championship 27 the following year. Wattimena represented the Netherlands in the 2019 PDC World Cup of Darts, reaching the semi-finals alongside Michael van Gerwen.

Career Early career Wattimena won the first event he entered as he claimed the 2008 Malta Open by beating Vincent Busuttil in the final. He made his British Darts Organisation debut in a major event at the World Masters and won four games to reach the last 24 where he lost 3–0 to Steve Douglas. In 2014, Wattimena won the German Gold Cup courtesy of defeating Jan Dekker 3–2 in the final. Later in the year he qualified for the 2015 PDC World Championship by winning the Central European Qualifier, concluding with a 6–3 victory over Kenny Neyens. Wattimena entered the event in the preliminary round and narrowly lost 4–3 to Robert Marijanović, missing three match darts in the final leg.

2015 He entered PDC Qualifying School in January 2015 and was eliminated in the final round of the third day by Steve Douglas. However, Wattimena had already done enough through the Order of Merit to not even need to play on the fourth day as he finished joint second on the Order of Merit to earn a two-year PDC tour card. He qualified for the UK Open and defeated Jonny Clayton 5–1 in the first round, but then lost to Kevin McDine 5–4. Wattimena twice lost in the last 16 of Players Championship events during the year and beat Robert Marijanović 6–5 at the European Darts Grand Prix, but was then knocked out 6–3 by Peter Wright in the second round.

2016 In the first round of the 2016 World Championship, Wattimena lost 3–1 to Mensur Suljović. He overcame Andy Smith 6–5 and Kevin Dowling 6–1 at the UK Open, before losing 9–7 to Alan Norris in the third round. At the 15th Players Championship wins over Jonny Clayton, David Pallett, Peter Wright, Simon Stevenson and Jelle Klaasen ensured Wattimena played in his first PDC semi-final and he was defeated 6–3 by Michael van Gerwen. He qualified for seven European Tour events during the season and, although he didn't get past the second round in any of them, his consistent play saw him make his debut in the European Championship, where he lost 6–1 to Mensur Suljović in the first round.

2017–2023 He lost 3–1 in the opening round of the World Championship for the second year in a row in the 2017 event, this time to Daryl Gurney. He knocked out Mick Todd, Dave Chisnall, Robert Thornton, Kyle Anderson and Benito van de Pas at the seventh Players Championship to reach his second PDC semi-final, where he was defeated by Kim Huybrechts 6–3. He reached third PDC semi-final at Players Championship 17, where he beat Alan Tabern, Berry van Peer, Peter Hudson, Steve Beaton and Justin Pipe, before losing to Kevin Painter 6–3. He qualified for five European Tour events over 2017, failing to make it past the Last 32 in any of them, meaning he did not qualify for the 2017 European Championship. He made a third Players Championship semi-final of the year in the final weekend in Barnsley, at Players Championship 21, where he knocked out Ross Twell, Ian White, Kevin Painter, Peter Jacques and Michael Smith, before a 6–2 defeat to Adrian Lewis. This was enough for him to qualify for the Players Championship Finals, as the 29th seed. Wattimena started off with a 6–0 whitewash win against Keegan Brown. He saw off Mickey Mansell 6–3 in the second round. However, in the last 16, he was defeated 10–9 by Steve Beaton in a deciding leg, having levelled from 9–5 down. He picked up £8,000 from the Players Championship Finals. Wattimena's consistent improvement and progression up the rankings was rewarded with a 'challenger' spot for the 2020 Premier League in Rotterdam.

2024 On the 2024 European Tour, Wattimena reached the quarter-finals of the Belgian Darts Open, the German Darts Grand Prix, and the Czech Darts Open; he lost 6–2 to Luke Littler and Michael van Gerwen in the first two events, and lost 6–4 to Kim Huybrechts in the third.

His performances on the European Tour led to him qualifying for the European Championship, where he reached a first major final after defeating four major champions, including the reigning world champion Luke Humphries. He lost the final 11–3 to fellow maiden finalist Ritchie Edhouse. His run to the final saw him qualify for the Grand Slam of Darts, where he reached the quarter-finals before losing 16–2 to Littler.

2025–present

Wattimena defeated 16th seed James Wade 3–0 in the second round of the 2025 World Championship. He was eliminated in the third round, losing 4–2 to Peter Wright. After five runner-up finishes in PDC ranking finals, he claimed his first title at Players Championship 23 on the 2025 PDC Pro Tour by defeating Lukas Wenig 8–5. He won a second title of the year at Players Championship 31, beating Nathan Aspinall 8–2 in the final. He reached his second major semi-final at the 2025 Players Championship Finals, where Aspinall defeated him 11–2.

Following successive 3–2 wins against Dominik Grüllich and Scott Williams, Wattimena was eliminated from the 2026 World Championship by Gary Anderson in a 4–3 defeat. He reached the finals of Players Championship 12 and Players Championship 17, losing to Wessel Nijman and Luke Humphries, respectively. He reached his first European Tour final at the European Darts Open, where he was beaten 8–6 by Krzysztof Ratajski. At Players Championship 27 in August, Wattimena eliminated world champion Luke Littler in the quarter-finals before reaching his fourth final of the year, where he beat Kevin Doets 8–6 to win his third PDC ranking title.

Personal life Wattimena is of Indonesian descent with family roots in Ambon Island.

World Championship results PDC World Championship 2015: Preliminary round (lost to Robert Marijanović 3–4) (legs) 2016: First round (lost to Mensur Suljović 1–3) (sets) 2017: First round (lost to Daryl Gurney 1–3) 2018: Second round (lost to Steve West 1–4) 2019: Third round (lost to Gary Anderson 3–4) 2020: Second round (lost to Luke Humphries 2–3) 2021: Third round (lost to Dimitri Van den Bergh 0–4) 2022: First round (lost to Boris Koltsov 0–3) 2023: First round (lost to Nathan Rafferty 2–3) 2024: Second round (lost to Martin Schindler 1–3) 2025: Third round (lost to Peter Wright 2–4) 2026: Third round (lost to Gary Anderson 3–4)

Career finals PDC major finals: 1 (1 runner-up) Legend European Championship (0–1)

Outcome No. Year Championship Opponent in the final Score Runner-up 1. 2024 European Championship 3–11 (l)

Performance timeline BDO

PDC

European Tour

Players Championships