Darts news: The five biggest shocks in PDC World Championship history
The World Championships are now underway under the bright light of the Alexander Palace, and through the years, it has brought many upsets and shocks with highly-ranked players falling victim to the magic of the World Championships.
Here, Sports News Blitz writer Will Thomas looks at the five biggest shocks in World Championship history.
Michael Smith 4-3 Phil Taylor - 2013 World Darts Championship second round
Phil Taylor was the defending champion in the 2013 World Championships and was the odds-on favourite to go back-to-back.
The Power was facing a relatively unknown Michael Smith, who was the World Youth Champion at the time.
Taylor won the first set, hitting a 156 checkout - and it looked like the 16-time world champion was going to coast to victory, but then the Bully Boy we know now showed up, and it became a great contest.
Smith broke Taylor’s throw in the fifth leg to take it to a tie break, where he would produce a miraculous 128 finish on the bullseye for a 12-dart leg to win the match and cause one of the tournament’s biggest upsets.
Fallon Sherrock 3-1 Mensur Suljovic - 2020 World Championship third round
After Fallon Sherrok’s historic win against Ted Evette’s, she had the crowd and every spectator involved rooting for her against Mensur Suljovic.
But the majority thought it would be a step too far to beat the number 11-ranked Austrian.
Sherrock fought back from two legs down to win the first before Suljovic reversed the game in the second.
Suljovic would have darts to win every set, but his missed doubles would prove costly as the composed Sherrock would capitalise on the missed chances of ranked No.11.
Sherrock would go on to break the glass ceiling and win 3-1, etching her name in history and confirming her place as the Queen of the Palace.
Raymond van Barneveld 0-3 James Richardson - 2012 World Championship first round
Raymond van Barneveld was facing James Richardson, who ranked at 85 in the world and was expecting to breeze into the second round, but it was anything but.
A bricklayer by trade, Richardson became confident after clinching the first set and would later go berserk after two 145 checkouts and a 120 finish, capitalising on Barney’s missed doubles.
Rodd Studd summed up the match perfectly, quoting “Richardson was ruthless, and Barney was toothless.”
Richardson would go on to lose 4-1 to Kim Huybrechts in the next round, but his name will always be etched in the history of the tournament for one of the biggest upsets in history.
Rob Cross vs Phil Taylor - PDC 2018 World Championship Final
Phil Taylor was playing his last professional PDC darts match in his final farewell tour. And after getting to the final, everyone watching was rooting for him to win his 17th World Championship.
However, Rob Cross had other ideas.
The Voltage carried on his magnificent form from his semi-final win against Michael van Gerwen into the final, proving too much for Taylor, winning his first major PDC trophy 7-2 against the Power.
To this day, Cross’s surprise World Championship victory is one of the biggest shocks in darts history and would later win the World Matchplay in the same year.
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Luke Litter’s 2023 World Championship final run
New world No.1 Luke Littler had just won the World Youth Championship against Gian van Veen and was a very promising prospect, but no one would have imagined how far he would go in the tournament.
The Nuke would go on to pull off a heroic win against Rob Cross 6-2 in the semi-final, making him the youngest player in history to reach the World Championship final, previously held by Kirk Shepherd in 2008.
The 16-year-old was 66/1 to win the tournament before it started and would come narrowly close, losing to Luke Humphries 7-4 in the final.
Although he didn’t win, that day Littler put the world on notice of what to expect in the future, and so far he has delivered.
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