Dart World Grand Prix: Nathan Aspinall, Raymond Van Barneveld, James Wade Suffer Early Exits On Opening Night

The 2023 World Grand Prix opened with a thrilling night of darts that saw some big names fall in the first round.

Nathan Aspinall, James Wade, and Raymond van Barneveld were among those who suffered early exits.

In the first match of the night, Stephen Bunting overcame some poor finishing to knock out 2022 runner-up and world No 5 Nathan Aspinall in a 2-1 victory.

Bunting showed his strength on the doubles to cruise to a 3-1 win in the first set. A ghastly leg for Aspinall saw him take 12 darts to find the double.

Aspinall then found a clutch 140 to take the match to a deciding set, but Bunting held strong under pressure. A huge maximum in the deciding leg helped him to the D16 finish for the victory.

World Grand Prix Results

Raymond van Barneveld was defeated 2-1 by Martin Schindler.

A disastrous opening leg foreshadowed his early exit.

‘Barney’ came back to take the second set, but Schindler’s scoring proved too much as he broke the throw on the deciding leg to seal the match and a second-round spot.

Krzysztof Ratajski pulled off an unlikely comeback to win 2-1 and knock out two-time winner James Wade.

Wade found himself 2-0 up in the final deciding set, but Ratajski fought back.

Ratajski was near perfect on the trebles to take three legs in a row and clinch an astonishing victory.

World champion Michael Smith showed his brilliance and dropped just one leg as he raced to a 2-0 victory over Callan Rydz.

Smith got off to a flying start against Rydz, a 124 checkout helping him to a first-set win that included two breaks of throw.

Despite Rydz rallying with a brilliant 126 checkout to take a leg, Smith then won three more in a row to wrap up the match and lay down a marker in the competition.

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Gerwyn Price demolished Danny Noppert in a 2-0 routing.

‘The Iceman’ showed his class to take the first set, 112 and 101 finishes to break the throw plus a dominant deciding leg giving him the upper hand.

From there, Noppert could not respond, and the Welshman cruised through three back-to-back legs to wrap up the win.

Dirk van Duijvenbode was the first to be knocked out as he fell 2-1 to Brendan Dolan.

Van Duijvenbode got going quickly as he raced to take all three legs in the first set against the throw for a 1-0 lead, but Dolan fought back to clinch the second set and take the match to a decider.

It was then his turn to take all three sets as he found the doubles much quicker than his opponent, sealing the win and the spot in the second round with a top finish.

An in-form Gary Anderson took on the ‘Special One’ Jose de Sousa in a thrilling match.

The Portuguese No 1 averaged 102.5 to clinch the first set on a break of throw in the deciding leg.

However, the ‘Flying Scotsman’ fought back, taking four legs in a row, with some huge maximums along the way, plus a nervy deciding leg for the 2-1 win.

The final clash of the night saw Rob Cross and Andrew Gilding in a tight, albeit low-quality, affair as Gilding sealed the 2-1 win in a last-leg decider.

Cross missed three match darts for the victory, and Gilding held his nerve to hit tops and seal only his second-ever World Grand Prix win.

World Grand Prix: Tuesday, October 3 from 6 pm

The night ended with anticipation for the upcoming matches.

Michael van Gerwen, who lifted his sixth World Grand Prix title in 2022, will begin his defence of the title against Josh Rock in a mouth-watering first-round tussle.

Third seed Peter Wright will play German No 1 Gabriel Clemens in his opener, with Hungarian Darts Trophy winner Dave Chisnall up against Luke Woodhouse.