Gerwyn Price Advances, Cameron Menzies Eliminated in Emotional Match

World number 10 Gerwyn Price, a former champion, commenced his campaign to reclaim the world darts title with a 3-0 victory over Keane Barry, while Cameron Menzies experienced an emotional defeat. Price, a Welsh player who secured the PDC World Championship in 2021, achieved an average of 91.31. His Irish opponent, Barry, missed 22 doubles during their second-round encounter. Scottish player Menzies visibly struggled to control his emotions as he succumbed to a 3-1 loss against Leonard Gates, an American ranked 130th globally. Menzies, ranked 39th, appeared distraught throughout the match, wiping away tears during the concluding stages of his first-round elimination. He subsequently shared a photograph on social media depicting him visiting his father in a hospital bed, accompanied by the message: “I didn’t wanna post this, man… my dad, my hero.” Price has faced a largely challenging 2024 but stated that he was performing some of his best darts leading into this year’s world championship. “A win’s a win. I probably wanted to win that match more than any match in my life,” he commented after his victory against Barry. “I wanted to enjoy Christmas, I wanted to just get a win and get home.” The 10th seed is slated to compete against Joe Cullen in the third round, provided he defeats the victor of the match between Wessel Nijman and Cameron Carolissen. Earlier, James Wade, a four-time semi-finalist, was eliminated in the second round by Jermaine Wattimena. Concurrently, England’s Connor Scutt delivered an impressive performance with a 3-0 win over Ben Robb, averaging nearly 102. Gates offered consolation to Menzies following his defeat. Menzies, a Grand Slam quarter-finalist, was visibly crestfallen after his unexpected loss to the veteran Gates. The 54-year-old Gates established an early lead, never looking back after achieving a 138 checkout in the opening leg against the Scot, who reached the semi-finals of the WDF World Championship in 2022. While Gates celebrated by wiggling his hips after hitting doubles and was cheered on by chants of ‘USA, USA’, his opponent was met with jeers and appeared increasingly despondent as the contest progressed. Menzies, whose partner Fallon Sherrock is scheduled to play Ryan Meikle on Tuesday, took deep breaths and seemed to wipe away tears between throws in the latter parts of the match. “I was definitely aware of it [his emotions],” Gates remarked. “But at the same time, I want my opponent to play their best against me to see if I can play my best against them.” “I told him to use the energy of the crowd, keep coming and keep playing the best he can to grow the PDC.” Gates is now set to face Nathan Aspinall, a two-time major winner, on Wednesday in the second round. Prior to Price’s main event, Robert Owen secured another Welsh victory on night two, coming from behind to achieve a 3-1 triumph over Dutchman Niels Zonneveld with a 121 checkout. Owen’s inaugural win at Ally Pally arranges a second-round fixture on Thursday against Germany’s Gabriel Clemens, a semi-finalist in 2023. England’s Scutt, a quarter-finalist at the Players Championship, engaged the audience and put on a display with a 101.92 average and a 56% checkout success rate. Scutt, known as ‘The Sniper’, topped the secondary Challenge Tour order of merit and dominated Robb, from New Zealand, who has now lost all five of his World Championship matches. Scutt, aged 28, will compete against Australian number one Damon Heta in the second round on Saturday, the same day teenage prodigy Luke Littler is scheduled to play his first match of the tournament. Wade has been eliminated from the PDC World Darts Championship in the second round for the third consecutive year. Wade became the first seeded player to exit this year’s competition after being overwhelmed by Wattimena. Wade, a former champion of the Premier League, World Matchplay, and World Grand Prix, suffered a 3-0 defeat in the final match of Monday’s afternoon session. The Englishman, as the 16th seed, had received a bye directly into round two. Wattimena, 36, will proceed to face either two-time world champion Peter Wright or Wesley Plaisier in the third round. The Dutchman was the first competitor to have participated on both opening days of this year’s World Championship, having previously defeated Swiss debutant Stefan Bellmont 3-0 on Sunday. After dropping the initial leg to Wade, Wattimena proceeded to win eight consecutive legs, securing the first two sets and moving within a single leg of a second-round victory. Wade managed to hit double 20 to prevent a whitewash in the final set, but Wattimena capitalized on Wade’s subsequent missed doubles to secure his win. Wattimena recorded an average of 99.17 in the match, compared to Wade’s 97.01. **Results:** **Afternoon – First round** Wesley Plaisier 3-2 Ryusei Azemoto Luke Woodhouse 3-0 Lourence Ilagan Alan Soutar 1-3 Kai Gotthardt **Second round** James Wade 0-3 Jermaine Wattimena **Evening – First round** Niels Zonneveld 1-3 Robert Owen Connor Scutt 3-0 Ben Robb Cameron Menzies 1-3 Leonard Gates Gerwyn Price 3-0 Keane Barry **Upcoming Schedule (All times GMT):** **Afternoon Session (12:30)** **First round** James Hurrell v Jim Long Kevin Doets v Noa-Lynn van Leuven Ryan Joyce v Darius Labanauskas Mike de Decker v Luke Woodhouse **Evening Session (19:00)** Jeffrey de Graaf v Rashad Sweeting Ricardo Pietreczko v Xiaochen Zong Ryan Meikle v Fallon Sherrock Peter Wright v Wesley Plaisier