The second day of the World Darts Championships saw the first real shocks of the tournament as two seeded players have fallen at the first hurdle. The biggest shock of the afternoon session saw Daryl Gurney of Northern Ireland make into the second round with a win over the seeded Andy Smith.
Gurney's day began with the preliminary qualifier over Croatia's Robi Marijanovic. After falling behind, Gurney levelled before taking the lead with a ton checkout. Marijanovic came back to lead 3-2 but the game turned again as Gurney took the next two legs to set up the first round match against Smith.
Smith wasn't at the races for most of the match and found himself 2-0 behind before he lost the opening set 3-1. Smith looked to turn it around with the opening leg of the second set but Gurney continued his good performance to again take the set 3-1, leaving him just one set from a famous victory. A 122-checkout from Gurney would set up a deciding leg in the third set but it was Smith who took it to put a set onto the ball. That may have rattled Gurney somewhat and qualifier magnificently took the fourth set without conceding to shock the world and book his place into the next round.
The day started as it finished, with a seed going out. Wayne Jones was the first on stage and he was defeated by Holland's Jerry Hendriks. The young man took all three sets but the scoreline hides the fact that all three went the distance. After taking the second set against the throw, the second set went with the throw to give Hendriks a 2-0 lead. Jones posted a 116-checkout to level the third set at 1-1 before Hendriks did the same the make it 2-2. The deciding leg saw Hendriks hit a superb 156-checkout to dump Jones out of the tournament.
Richie Burnett squeezes into the second round after an extremely nervy affair. It was a victory that saw the Welshman miss 46-darts at the double. Young James Hubbard was the opponent and was unsurprisingly nervous on his World Championship debut. Six legs had gone by with Hubbard only getting a dart at the double in one of them, making it two sets to nil for Burnett.
Hubbard woke up as Burnett began to lose confidence in himself and Hubbard took the third set 3-1. With a comeback on the cards, the crowd began to get on Burnett's back and it affected the Welshman. A 101-checkout from Hubbard was a great start to the third set but he then missed six darts at the double to allow Burnett to level the set. Burnett went onto have three darts to win the match but missed them and then another 101-checkout from Hubbard took the set 3-2 and levelled the match.
Burnett kicked the set off with a powered 112-checkout and again he wasted three darts to win the set 3-1. With the set at 2-2, the winner must now progress by two clear legs. Burnett held his throw to lead 3-2 before managing to break Hubbard and win it 4-2 to stumble into the next round.
Terry Jenkins eased into the second round with victory over Steve Brown. Brown was powerless to stop the raging Bull and conceding the first set without winning a leg. Brown did win the opening leg of the second set before Jenkins made it 2-0 with a 3-1 victory. Brown did end up taking a 2-1 lead in the third set but again Jenkins rallied back to take the set and charge into the next round.
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