December 19, 2023, 19:10 GMT
Updated 4 minutes ago
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Matt Campbell had never won a match at the PDC World Championship until this year
Englishman James Wade was the first to be eliminated from the 2024 PDC World Darts Championship after suffering a surprise defeat against Canadian 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 started the event in good form, having reached a final, a semi-final and a quarter-final in each of the last three major tournaments.
Second seed Michael van Gerwen lost just two legs as he beat Keane Barry.
The 34-year-old Dutchman, who is aiming for his fourth PDC world title after losing in the final last year, won 3-0 at Alexandra Palace in London.
“I’m happy with the finish and after the first set I felt like I could have punished him,” Van Gerwen said on Sky Sports.
“I'm a little disappointed with my result, but I'm happy to have won the first game. I was fine.”
“It's the first game of the World Cup and nobody wants to lose it. There’s a lot of pressure but I’m happy to be back after Christmas.”
Campbell, 34, will also return once the third round begins on December 27. Until this year, he had never won a match at the event.
Having now recorded two wins in a row, Campbell could face number 20 seed Andrew Gilding in the third round.
“The difference [this year] I guess I won the first game,” said Campbell, who lost four times in the first round before defeating Lourence Ilagan on Sunday.
“It makes it easy when you get the monkey off your back, it's like 'Okay, I can play my game and someone beats me, he beats me'.”
Tuesday's results
Boris Krcmar (Cro) 3-1 Keegan Brown (Eng) (R1)
Jeffrey de Graaf (Ned) 3-2 Ritchie Edhouse (Eng) (R1)
Tomoya Goto (Japan) 3-1 Ian White (Eng) (R1)
Matt Campbell (Can) 3-2 James Wade (Eng) (R2)
Steve Beaton (Eng) 3-1 Wessel Nijman (Ned) (R1)
Mike de Decker (Bel) 3-0 Dragutin Horvat (Germany) (R1)
Ricardo Pietreczko (Germany) 3:0 Mikuru Suzuki (Japan) (R1)
Michael van Gerwen (Ned) 3:0 Keane Barry (Ire) (R2)
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