NOS Sport•
The Darts World Cup is only halfway over, but the famous end-of-year tournament already has many surprises and remarkable appearances. The Christmas break (the World Cup continues on Saturday in London) is a good time to take stock.
battlefield
The first thing you notice: the World Cup is already becoming quite the battlefield. Of the 32 seeded darts players, more than half are out after the second round, including sixth-seeded Danny Noppert. The Dutchman had to bow his head 3-2 to the Englishman Justin Hood in one of the most exciting matches to date, despite his high average of more than 102 points.
Numbers 7 (James Wade), 8 (Chris Dobey) and 9 (Gerwyn Price) on the placement list have also already been completed, with Price being eliminated by the Dutchman Wesley Plaisier, who said:by far his greatest victory”. In addition to Price, three more former world champions have already returned home: Raymond van Barneveld, Michael Smith and Peter Wright.
The entire top 5 (Luke Littler, Luke Humphries, Michael van Gerwen, Stephen Bunting and Jonny Clayton) made it to the third round.
Crowd favorites
There is no shortage of crowd favorites this year. Take David Munyua, nicknamed ‘Why Not?’ and veterinarian by profession. He was already the first Kenyan darts player ever to qualify for the World Cup. But his participation at Alexandra Palace became even more spectacular when he eliminated 18th-seeded Belgian Mike De Decker. In the second round Munyua found his Waterloo against the Dutchman Kevin Doets.
But the debutant that no one will forget is Motomu Sakai. The Japanese, who started playing darts to impress girls, first stole the show with his crazy turn-up dances, in which he imitated a chicken, among other things. And then surprisingly reached the second round. Unfortunately for the darts fans, the Swede Andreas Harrysson robbed Ally Pally of its new crowd favorite.
Furthermore, 71-year-old Paul Lim added a year to his status as the oldest World Cup participant ever. The ‘Singapore Slinger’, which scored the first nine-dart finish at the World Championship in 1990 (then still with the British Darts Organisation), eliminated the Swedish Dutchman Jeffrey de Graaf in the first round. But in the second round Lim had no chance (3-0) against Luke Humphries, although the 2024 world champion still gave Lim a leg in the third set.
Six more Dutch people
Of the 128 darts players who started the tournament on December 11, 32 are still left after two rounds. There are six more Dutch people, double the number of a year ago, with the names of Plaisier, Doets and Niels Zonneveld being the most striking. They compensate for the premature departure of the seeded Noppert, Wessel Nijman and Dirk van Duijvenbode, all three of whom were eliminated in the second round.
Gian van Veen, seeded tenth, already highly rated by the bookmakers, appears to be the Dutchman with the best form after two convincing victories. Not only did the only 23-year-old Van Veen win a match at the World Cup for the first time, in his victory in the second round he recorded the highest tournament average to date (108.28).
‘Hungry’ Van Gerwen convinces at the World Cup: ‘Show that I am capable of a lot’
Michael van Gerwen set tongues wagging in a different way. In advance, dart enthusiasts watched a clash between former world champions Van Gerwen and Wright in the third round. That didn’t happen, because Wright fell against the German Arno Merk. Asked if he was surprised by that, van Gerwen told SkySports: “No, because he’s been playing rubbish lately and I think it’s time for him to retire anyway.”
