Michael Smith suffers a shock early exit at the World Darts Championship, while Callan Rydz sets a new tournament record with his performance.
Michael Smith suffered a shock early second-round exit in a 3-2 loss to Kevin Doets in the World Darts Championship at Alexandra Palace. The loss knocks 'Bullyboy' out of the world top 10, the 2023 world champion unable to find his A-game in an enthralling contest that went all the way. With the match level at 2-2 in sets and 2-2 in legs, the drama reached fever pitch with the match needing to be won by two clear legs.
While Doets' 81 checkout was matched by a 76 from Smith to bring the legs to 3-a-piece, a 94 checkout with two D19s then put Smith a leg away. However, Doets brought it level at 4-4 in legs once again with a 54 on tops and then took out 90 on the bullseye to throw for the match, pinning D5 and roaring with delight at knocking out the world No 2. In Thursday's afternoon session, former Worlds semi-finalist Gabriel Clemens suffered a shock second-round exit at the hands of Robert Owen, the 27th seed going down 3-1 to the Welshman. With Owen two sets and a break up, Clemens suddenly came roaring back to rattle off four straight legs while taking the third set and immediately breaking in the fourth. But Owen held his nerve, producing a 112 average in that fourth set to see off Clemens' comeback bid and close out a magnificent victory that is set to see him regain his tour card. Callan Rydz produced the performance of the tournament so far, and the highest-ever first-round average (107.06), as the 2022 quarter-finalist swept aside Romeo Grbavac in straight sets. Rydz was at one point threatening to become only the third player to average over 110 at the Ally Pally (after Phil Taylor and Michael van Gerwen), while Grbavac himself had a healthy 97
WORLD DARTS CHAMPIONSHIP MICHAEL SMITH KEVIN DOETS CALLAN RYDZ DARTS
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