Day Eight of the World Darts Championship was the most shocking yet as three seeds crashed out at the first time of asking.
The PDC Tour has offered up plenty of surprises in 2024 and it’s continued into the biggest tournament of the year.
After Day Eight of the tournament, one side of the draw is suddenly wide open as we head into the Christmas break.
Here are five things we learned from Day Eight of the World Darts Championship.
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Callan Rydz continues dream tournament
Callan Rydz followed up his devastating win over Romeo Grbavac with another stunning performance to dump out Martin Schindler.
Rydz is yet to drop a set at this year’s tournament and capitalised on the German’s poor finishing to secure his place in the third round.
He got nowhere near his tournament-high average of 107.06 against Grbavac, but a steady 91.05 was enough to topple Schindler.
Rydz plays Dimitri Van den Bergh in the third round after Christmas.
Paolo Nebrida shocks Ross Smith
Paolo Nebrida proved his bottle in his 3-2 first-round display against Jim Williams, but his 3-0 victory over Ross Smith was no-less tense.
The Filipino star won every set 3-2 as he kept his nerve to knock out World No. 19 Smith with a 90+ average.
The 29-year-old is the only qualifier to secure his place in the third round so far as his dream tournament continues.
Nebrida plays Jeffrey De Graaf in the third round.
Jeffrey De Graaf produces near-perfect finishing to dump out Gary Anderson
De Graaf produces one of the stories of the tournament by defeating World No. 14 Gary Anderson on his birthday.
The Swede was inspired on his doubling, hitting 75% of his darts to finish legs as he offered Anderson no route back into the match.
Anderson was one of the favourites for the tournament, but he was a rarely given a look-in by De Graaf in a comfortable 3-0 victory.
Joe Cullen finds form to defeat Wessel Nijman
Wessel Nijman was many fans and pundits pick as a ‘dark horse’ for the World Darts Championship and many were overlooking Joe Cullen ahead of their second-round clash.
This clearly irked Cullen who dispatched the Dutch star in stunning style with a routine 3-0 victory and a near-100 average.
Cullen’s ‘awkward’ post-match interview suggested the star wasn’t happy about the way he was treated by the media, but he certainly proved his worth with this performance.
Cullen set up a third-round meeting with Gerwyn Price.
Ryan Searle drops one leg against Matt Campbell
World No. 20 Ryan Searle was, perhaps, another star who many overlooked heading into the Ally Pally showcase and he made a statement with his second-round victory over Matt Campbell.
Heavy Metal averaged 99.38 against the Canadian, dropping just one leg, as he raced into the third-round of the tournament.
Campbell had a chance to make it 2-2 in the first set, but after that Searle put the star to the sword with two 3-0 sets.
Searle plays Ryan Joyce in the third-round of the tournament.