James Wade fell at the second round as Matt Campbell clinched a 3-2 victory; The contest went to a deciding set; the World Darts Championship runs all the way until the final on January 3, 2024
Tuesday 19 December 2023 19:44, UK
James Wade has been knocked out in the second round of the World Darts Championship in a 3-2 loss to Canadian Matt Campbell.
It is the second year running that the world No 13 has been knocked out of the competition in the second round.
Wade is the first seeded player to be knocked out of this year's competition.
The first set was a close contest between the two, the darts going with the throw and Wade picking up the set.
The second continued in a similar fashion until Campbell pounced on a Wade error and broke the throw to take a 2-1 lead in the second set, a 14-dart-leg seeing him level the tie.
It was then Wade's turn to break the throw, taking out a sensational 132 on his way to gaining a 2-1 lead but the fourth set was all Campbell as he hit a purple patch, taking three legs in a row to take the clash to a decider.
After taking the first two legs of the final set, breaking Wade's throw once again, Campbell missed his first opportunity at sealing the win and Wade brought the set square at 2-2.
However, the Canadian held his nerve and as Wade made a mess of his 56 checkout, Campbell swooped in to clinch victory on D18.
Campbell has been in fine form since October, but he believes this is his biggest win of his career so far.
"I am happy to come away with the win against a quality player like James... It's massive." Campbell told Sky Sports.
"After you get that first win you kind of get to relax a bit. Thankfully I am able to just relax and throw darts."
In among the first-round action in the afternoon, Jeffrey de Graaf fought back from two sets down to defeat Ritchie Edhouse, who was made to rue a missed match dart in the third set that would have clinched a 3-0 whitewash.
De Graaf, who had never previously passed the first round of any darts world championship (four BDO visits, two PDC), will next face 25th seed José de Sousa.
Elsewhere, an off-colour Keegan Brown fell to a disappointing 3-1 loss to Boris Krcmar, while Ian White was another to suffer a surprise exit to Japan's Tomoya Goto, who was hugely impressive on his Alexandra Palace debut.
