World Darts Championship: James Wade beaten by Jermaine Wattimena for early exit at Alexandra Palace | Darts news

James Wade became the first seeded player to exit the World Darts Championship after being beaten by Jermaine Wattimena in the second round at Alexandra Palace.

Wade, a four-time World Championship semi-finalist, had been seen as a potential candidate to challenge for the Sid Waddell Trophy, but has been beaten in his first match for the third consecutive year.

The Englishman won the opening leg by 13, only for Wattimena to take control of a one-sided match by winning the next eight games to move two sets and a break down against the 16th seed.

Wade briefly halted Wattimena’s run by clearing the tops by a shot of 15, only for the Dutchman to wrap up victory in 20 minutes into the leg, leaving him to face compatriot Wesley Plaisier or two-time champion of the world Peter Wright after Christmas.

More to follow…

What else happened on Monday afternoon?

Welsey Plaisier booked a second-round clash with two-time world champion Gerwyn Price after twice coming back from a set down to beat Ryusei Azemoto in a low-scoring contest.

Both players struggled with their middles and ends, with the first maximum not coming until the fourth set, before Plaisier improved in the latter stages of a long encounter to rattle off six straight legs and finish with victory.

Luke Woodhouse he won each of the first seven heats on his way to a straight sets win over Laurence Ilagan, averaging 94.38 and firing four highs to set up a showdown against World Grand Prix champion Mike de Decker.

Kai Gotthardt overcame a broken dart cannon and dropped a set to defeat Alan Soutar 3-1 on his World Championship debut, with the German now facing Stephen Bunting in the next round.

Gotthardt had to leave the stage to sort out the problem during the first set, won by Soutar, before taking advantage of the Scot’s wayward finishing to win eight of the next set on his way to a stunning victory.

what happens next

We’ve got another day of action for you on Tuesday 17th December and you can watch it all live on Sky Sports Darts.

From 12.30pm, we have James Hurrell vs Jim Long, Kevin Doets vs Noa-Lynn van Leuven, Ryan Joyce vs Darius Labanauskas and World Grand Prix Champion Mike De Decker vs Luke Woodhouse.

Then from 7pm we have Jeffrey de Graaf vs Rashad Sweeting, Ricardo Pietreczko vs Xiaochen Zong, Ryan Meikle playing Fallon Sherrock – with a chance to face Luke Littler on the line – and Peter Wright vs Wesley pleasure

Who will win the Paddy Power World Darts Championship? Watch all the matches live exclusively from 15 December to 3 January on Sky Sports’ dedicated darts channel. Stream darts and more top sports with ARA.