Two-time world champion Gary Anderson crashed out of the World Darts Championship after a shock second-round loss to Jeffrey de Graaf at Alexandra Palace.
Anderson struggled throughout a one-sided contest against his unseeded opponent, winning only two legs and converting just three out of 20 attempts at double on his way to a straight-sets defeat against De Graaf.
De Graaf breezed through the first two sets and broke Anderson again in the next, wrapping up a famous win to book a third-round meeting with Paolo Nebrida after Christmas.
Anderson’s birthday to forget was the first time he had lost his opening match in 16 World Championship appearances, on a night where fellow seeds Ross Smith and Martin Schindler were also knocked out.
How Anderson suffered early exit
Anderson was one of the names expected to challenge favourites Luke Humphries and Luke Littler for the Sid Waddell Trophy, being in the other side of the draw to last year’s finalist, but failed to live pre-tournament expectations.
De Graaf opened with an 11-dart hold and fired in a Shanghai finish for a second successive ton-plus checkout to break, then responded to a stunning 121 finish and 12-darter from Anderson to wrap up the opening set on D9.
De Graaf is through to the third round for a second year in a row
The Swede immediately broke with a 13-darter at the start of the second and capitalised on six missed darts at double from the ‘Flying Scotsman’ in the next to hold throw, with more wayward finishing from Anderson allowing De Graaf to close out the set in the following leg.
A visibly frustrated Anderson ended a run of seven consecutive lost legs with a brilliant 11-darter, with the Scot dragging the third set into a decider after responding to De Graaf winning the third leg by claiming a 14-dart hold of his own.
Anderson needed to break the DeGraaf throw in a final-leg decider to extend the contest, but could only watch on as De Graaf took out a 76 finish on D18 to complete an impressive victory.
“It’s great,” De Graaf told Sky Sports. “Gary didn’t show up as he usually does but I am very happy with the win.
“I got very nervous after the first set and when I was 2-0 up I was thinking: ‘What is going on now?’ I am happy that I got through in the end. I am happy to be here and let’s keep going.”
Seeds depart on Sunday of shocks at Ally Pally
Dimitri Van den Bergh avoided a clean sweep of seeds by brushing aside Ireland’s Dylan Slevin in straight sets, earning the 11th seed a third-round showdown with Callan Rydz.
The Belgian – who posted six maximum and a 96 average – fired a 117 checkout to snatch the opening set then broke Slevin in the final leg of the second, before finding a 13-dart hold in another last-leg decider to complete an impressive start.
The famous Ally Pally wasp returns during Dimitri Van den Bergh’s match with Dylan Slevin
Rydz – the player with the highest first-round average – claimed his successive straight-sets win of the tournament, following his 3-0 win over Romeo Grbavac in his opener by knocking Schindler out by the same margin.
The Englishman produced a 91.05 average and capitalised on some woeful finishing from Schindler, who only converted three of 28 attempts at double, while the other match of the evening saw Nebrida became the first Asian player to reach the third round since 2020.
Nebrida produced three ton-plus finishes in his 3-0 victory, where Smith missed darts to win each of the three sets, with the Filipino one of 11 players to knock out a seeded player so far in the second round.
Ally Pally upset alert! Paolo Nebrida hit three big checkouts as he beat Ross Smith
Cullen cuts short media duties after cruising through
In the afternoon session, Joe Cullen stormed out of his post-match press conference after cruising through to the third round with a straight-sets victory over Dutchman Wessel Nijman.
Joe Cullen says the media have shown him ‘no respect’, after Wessel Nijman was made the favourite in their clash at the World Darts Championship
Cullen had won just three of his last 12 matches before this year’s Worlds but produced one of his performance of the year, firing a 98.18 average to set up a meeting with former world champion Gerwyn Price after Christmas.
The Rockstar felt he had been disrespected in the build-up to the tournament, telling reporters: “I’ve been shown no respect, so I won’t share any respect to any of you guys tonight. I’m going to go home.”
Cullen gives a fleeting interview to Sky Sports Darts after posting a dominant win over Nijman
Ryan Searle opened proceedings with an impressive 3-0 victory against Matt Campbell while Dirk van Duijvenbode became the latest seed to make an early exit after Latvian Madar Razma came from a set down to claim a 3-1 win.
Ian White also caused an upset after knocking out current European Championship winner Ritchie Edhouse, with a 3-1 win for ‘Diamond’ seeing him progress to play pre-tournament favourite Luke Littler in the third round.
Ian White says he is ready to upset ‘Runcorn’s No two’, Luke Littler, in round three
“He [Littler] is Runcorn’s No 2 – I’m from Runcorn and I’m No 1!” White said. “You want to cause an upset. I’m all for it. Luke Littler has done everything for this sport at the moment.”
What is coming up on day nine?
The final eight second-round matches take place on Monday, with Jonny Clayton headlining the afternoon session against Mickey Mansell and former world youth champion Josh Rock up against Rhys Griffin.
Krzysztof Ratajski face Alexis Toylo in the opening match of the day and former UK Open champion Andrew Gilding opens his tournament against Martin Lukeman, while Dave Chisnall and former world champion Rob Cross are both involved in the evening session.
Chisnall plays Ricky Evans and Cross takes on Scott Williams, following on from Gian van Veen going up against Ricardo Pietreczko and Daryl Gurney playing Florian Hempel.
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