Wright wins as Meikle defeats Sherrock

PA Media

Frank Keogh

BBC Sport Senior Journalist

2 hours ago

Two-time champion Peter Wright won his opening game at the PDC World Championship, while Ryan Meikle edged out Fallon Sherrock to set up a match against teenage prodigy Luke Littler.

Scotland’s Wright, the 2020 and 2022 winner, has been out of form this year, but overcame Wesley Plaisier 3-1 in the second round at Alexandra Palace in London.

“It was this crowd that got me through, they wanted me to win. I thank you all,” said Wright.

Meikle came from a set down to claim a 3-2 victory in his first-round match against Sherrock, who was the first woman to win matches at the tournament five years ago.

The 28-year-old will now play on Saturday against Littler, who was named BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year and runner-up in the main award to athlete Keely Hodgkinson on Tuesday night.

Littler, 17, will be competing on the Ally Pally stage for the first time since his rise to stardom when finishing runner-up in January’s world final to Luke Humphries.

Earlier on Tuesday, World Grand Prix champion Mike de Decker – the 24th seed – suffered a surprise defeat to Luke Woodhouse in the second round.

He is the second seed to exit following 16th seed James Wade’s defeat on Monday to Jermaine Wattimena, who meets Wright in round three.

Kevin Doets recovered from a set down to win 3-1 against Noa-Lynn van Leuven, who was making history as the first transgender woman to compete in the tournament.

Sherrock misses out on Littler encounter

The 54-year-old Wright only averaged 89.63 to his opponent’s 93.77, but did enough to progress.

Sporting a purple mohawk and festive outfit, crowd favourite ‘Snakebite’ showed glimpses of his best to win the first set and survived eight set darts to go 2-0 ahead.

He lost the next but Dutchman Plaisier missed two more set darts in the fourth and Wright seized his opportunity.

“Wesley had his chances but he missed them and I took them,” he said. “He’s got his tour card and he’s going to be a dangerous player next year for all the players playing against him.”

Sherrock, 30, fought back from 2-1 down to force a decider against her English compatriot Meikle.

She then narrowly missed the bull to take out 170 in the fourth leg before left-hander Meikle held his nerve to hit double 18 for a 96 finish to seal a hard-fought success.

“I felt under pressure from the start and to come through feels unbelievable,” said Meikle.

“It’s an unbelievable prize to play Luke here on this stage. It’s the biggest stage of them all. I’m so happy.”

World number 81 Jeffrey de Graaf, who was born in the Netherlands but now represents Sweden, looked in trouble against Rashad Sweeting before prevailing 3-1.

Sweeting, who was making history as the first player from the Bahamas to compete in the tournament, took the first set, but De Graaf fought back to clinch a second-round meeting with two-time champion Gary Anderson

Germany’s Ricardo Pietreczko, ranked 34, beat China’s Xiaochen Zong 3-1 and will face Gian van Veen next.