Unhappy birthday: Former champion Gary Anderson bows out of World Championship
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Two-time winner Gary Anderson endured a 54th birthday to forget as he crashed out of the World Championship following a shock second-round defeat to Jeffrey de Graaf. The Scot, champion in 2015 and 2016, hit just three of his 20 checkout attempts as he was whitewashed 3-0 to fall in his opening match of the tournament for the first time.
Anderson was the highest-profile casualty on a day of upsets at Alexandra Palace in London following exits for fellow seeded players Ross Smith, Martin Schindler, Dirk van Duijvenbode and Ritchie Edhouse. The 14th seed came into the competition with the year’s highest overall three-dart average of 99.66.
Underdog De Graaf, who had a 75 per cent checkout success and began with an 11-dart finish, told Sky Sports: “It’s great. Gary didn’t really show up as he usually does but I am very happy with the win. “I was very nervous after the first set and even when I was 2-0 up I was thinking to myself, ‘what’s going on now?’.
“You could see that maybe with a few darts as well, when I missed. It was just the nerves getting in but I’m happy that I got it through in the end.”. Earlier, Joe Cullen stormed out of his post-match press conference after accusing the media of a lack of respect following a 3-0 win over Wessel Nijman.
