Two-time champion Anderson knocked out by De Graaf

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Frank Keogh

BBC Sport Senior Journalist

22 December 2024, 22:13 GMT

Updated 1 hour ago

Two-time champion Gary Anderson has been dumped out of the PDC World Championship on his 54th birthday by Jeffrey de Graaf.

The Scot, winner in 2015 and 2016, lost 3-0 to the Swede in a second-round shock at Alexandra Palace in London.

“Gary didn’t really show up as he usually does. I’m very happy with the win,” said De Graaf, 34, who had a 75% checkout success and began with an 11-dart finish.

Anderson, ranked 14th, became the 11th seed to be knocked out from the 24 who have played so far, and the fifth to fall on Sunday.

He came into the competition with the year’s highest overall three-dart average of 99.66 but hit just three of his 20 checkout attempts to lose his opening match of the tournament for the first time.

De Graaf will now meet Filipino qualifier Paolo Nebrida after he stunned England’s Ross Smith, the 19th seed, in straight sets.

Ritchie Edhouse, Dirk van Duijvenbode and Martin Schindler were the other seeds beaten on day eight.

England’s Callan Rydz, who hit a record first-round average of 107.06 on Thursday, followed up with a 3-0 win over 23rd seed Schindler on Sunday.

The German missed double 12 for a nine-darter in the first set – the third player to do so in 24 hours after Luke Littler and Damon Heta – and ended up losing the leg.

Rydz next meets Belgian Dimitri van den Bergh, who hit six 180s and averaged 96 in a 3-0 win over Irishman Dylan Slevin.

Cullen cuts short news conference

England’s Joe Cullen stormed out of his post-match news conference and accused the media of not showing him respect after his 3-0 win over Dutchman Wessel Nijman.

Nijman, who has previously served a ban for breaching betting and anti-corruption rules, had been billed as favourite beforehand to beat 23rd seed Cullen.

“Honestly, the media attention that Wessel’s got, again this is not a reflection on him,” Cullen said.

“He seems like a fantastic kid, he’s been caught up in a few things beforehand, but he’s served his time and he’s held his hands up, like a lot haven’t.

“I think the way I’ve been treated probably with the media and things like that – I know you guys have no control over the bookies – I’ve been shown no respect, so I won’t be showing any respect to any of you guys tonight.

“I’m going to go home. Cheers.”

Ian ‘Diamond’ White beat European champion and 29th seed Edhouse 3-1 and will face teenage star Littler in the next round.

White, born in the same Cheshire town as the 17-year-old, acknowledged he would need to up his game in round three.

Asked if he knew who was waiting for him, White joked: “Yeah, Runcorn’s number two. I’m from Runcorn and I’m number one.”

Ryan Searle started Sunday afternoon’s action off with a 10-dart leg and went on to beat Matt Campbell 3-0, while Latvian Madars Razma defeated 25th seed Van Duijvenbode 3-1.

Seventh seed Jonny Clayton and 2018 champion Rob Cross are among the players in action on Monday as the second round concludes.

The third round will start on Friday after a three-day break for Christmas.