Raymond van Barneveld made a winning return to Alexandra Palace, beating Lourence Ilagan 3-0 to set up an intriguing second-round meeting with Rob Cross.
Van Barneveld, the 2007 PDC world champion, retired from darts after losing to Darin Young in the first round here in 2020, but quickly decided to return to the oche. The Dutchman, who missed the 2021 event, won the first set 3-1 and broke Ilagan early in the second before taking out 121 to go 2-0 up.
Ilagan ended a run of six straight lost legs, holding his throw to level the third set at 1-1, but Van Barneveld broke at the next opportunity to win with an impressive 96.70 average. “It’s a privilege to be back,” he told Sky afterwards. “Rob is playing fantastic darts – he’s a former champion, I’m a five-time world champion. I can’t wait.”
The No 4 seed, James Wade, punished poor finishing from Maik Kuivenhoven to scrap his way into the third round. Kuivenhoven posted the better match average – 88.60 to Wade’s 83.74 – but could not take his chances as Wade progressed with an unconvincing 3-1 victory.
The Dutchman missed two doubles to win the fourth game of the night and saw Wade take out 105 to clinch the first set. Wade got the decisive break at the start of the second after Kuivenhoven again failed to close out the leg. Kuivenhoven did rally in the third, breaking Wade with a 99 checkout and taking the set 3-0.
Wade won a scrappy fourth-set opener on double five after more poor finishing from his opponent, and held on to his throw to get the job done, finishing with a double-two checkout after missing a number of match darts. Behind the players, the Ally Pally crowd were busy working on a new chant – “stand up if you hate Boris”.
Wade will face Vincent van der Voort or Adam Hunt in the last 32. Earlier, Austria’s Rusty-Jake Rodriguez joined his brother, Rowby-John, in the second round after a 3-1 victory over New Zealand’s Ben Robb. Rodriguez, who posted an average of 93.86, will face the No 30 seed Chris Dobey in the next round.
In the first match of the evening, Luke Woodhouse fought back from losing the first set to beat James Wilson 3-1 and book a second-round clash with Australia’s Damon Heta.
Tuesday sees the final first-round matches played in the afternoon, before the second round continues with Dimitri Van den Bergh and Michael Smith among the big names in action.
