Wade suffers shock early exit but Van Gerwen through

4 months ago 39

England's James Wade became the first seed knocked out of the 2024 PDC World Darts Championship as he suffered a shock loss to Canada's Matt Campbell.

Four-time semi-finalist Wade led 2-1 before world number 59 Campbell fought back to win 3-2 in the second round.

Wade, seeded 13th, had come into the event in good form, having reached a final, semi-final and quarter-final in the last three major tournaments.

Second seed Michael van Gerwen dropped just two legs in beating Keane Barry.

The 34-year-old Dutchman, who is going for a fourth PDC world title after losing in last year's final, cruised to a 3-0 victory at Alexandra Palace in London.

"With the finishing I'm pleased and after the first set I felt I could have punished him," said Van Gerwen on Sky Sports.

"I'm a little bit disappointed with my scoring but I'm happy to win the first match. I did OK.

"It's the first match of the World Championships and nobody wants to lose it. There is a lot of pressure, but I'm glad to be coming back after Christmas."

Campbell, 34, will also return once the third round begins on 27 December. He had never won a match at the event until this year.

After now recording back-to-back wins, Campbell could face English 20th seed Andrew Gilding in the third round.

"The difference [this year] is I won the first game, I guess," said Campbell, who had lost in the first round on four occasions before beating Lourence Ilagan on Sunday.

"It makes it easy when you have the monkey off your back, it's like 'OK I can play my game and someone beats me they beat me'."

Afternoon session:

Boris Krcmar (Cro) 3-1 Keegan Brown (Eng) (R1)

Jeffrey de Graaf (Ned) 3-2 Ritchie Edhouse (Eng) (R1)

Tomoya Goto (Jpn) 3-1 Ian White (Eng) (R1)

Matt Campbell (Can) 3-2 James Wade (Eng) (R2)

Evening session:

Steve Beaton (Eng) 3-1 Wessel Nijman (Ned) (R1)

Mike de Decker (Bel) 3-0 Dragutin Horvat (Ger) (R1)

Ricardo Pietreczko (Ger) 3-0 Mikuru Suzuki (Jpn) (R1)

Michael van Gerwen (Ned) 3-0 Keane Barry (Ire) (R2)

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