Ryan de Vreede produced one of the upsets of the tournament so far as he came out on top against fellow Dutchman Jules van Dongen as the second round of the 2022 WDF World Championships continued at Lakeside.
Fresh off his first round victory over Italy’s Francesco Raschini, de Vreede won the opening two legs of the match before current PDC Tour Card holder van Dongen levelled the set up at 2-2.
De Vreede took the decider with a 72 finish and followed that up by winning the second set 3-2 as well, taking out 104 and 90 in a three-leg run after van Dongen had kicked off the set with 110 and 74 checkouts.
Van Dongen reduced the arrears by winning the third set 3-1 but despite winning the opening leg of the fourth he couldn’t repeat the trick, de Vreede winning three on the spin in 50 darts to complete a 3-1 victory.
Next up for de Vreede is WDF World No.1 James Hurrell, who showed real grit and determination to come through a tense five-set tussle with John Desreumaux 3-2 and win his first game on the Lakeside stage at the third attempt.
Entering the tournament as one of the favourites to go all the way, it was clear that Hurrell was nervous throughout and he dropped the first set 3-1 to ‘Killer Bee’.
Desreumaux took out a big 130 finish to take a 2-1 lead in the second set, only to miss three set darts in the following leg. Hurrell capitalised on those misses, rattling off five legs on the spin to go 2-1 up in sets.
The Belgian would not go away though and punished some errant Hurrell doubles to win the fourth set 3-0 and force a decider.
The final set was similarly one-sided, although unfortunately for Desreumaux it went the other way, Hurrell producing a brilliant 141 checkout to wrap it up 3-0 and the match 3-2. Hurrell, the new England captain, only hit 20.4% of his doubles and will know that he has to be better in the last 16.
Kirsty Hutchinson is one of the favourites in the bottom half of the draw of the Women’s World Championships and she kicked off her tournament with a win over Jo Clements.
It was the superior scoring power of Hutchinson, the reigning Welsh Open champion, that proved the difference-maker in the first set, which she won 3-1.
Clements was able to find her rhythm more in the second, kicking off the set with an 80 finish before taking out 134 to break the Hutchinson throw and force a decider.
She couldn’t seal the deal though, Hutchinson going out in 17 to round out the straight-sets victory. She’ll be back in action on Friday to face Priscilla Steenbergen in the quarter-finals.
Following the conclusion of the match between Ryan de Vreede and Jules van Dongen, the decision has been made to postpone the match between Wayne Warren and Lee Shewan until tomorrow evening (6th April) due to a production technical failure meaning that the game would not have been live on television. The match will be played in the evening session. Further details to follow.
James Hurrell 3-2 John Desreumaux
Kirsty Hutchinson 2-0 Jo Clements
Ryan de Vreede 3-1 Jules van Dongen
