World No 4 Peter Wright suffered the humiliation of exiting the World Darts Championship in his opening match of the tournament – a defeat that will significantly hurt his bank balance.
Wright is a two-time world champion and headed into this year’s event in good form having secured the European Championship this summer.
That was his first televised ranking honour in almost two years and saw him jump up the Order of Merit.
But Wright looked out of sorts in his opening match of the World Championships against Jim Williams.
Peter Wright dropped down the live rankings
PA
He ended up averaging a measly 79.17 in the third and final set as he was thrashed 3-0.
And the defeat could prove costly with Wright now falling down from third to seventh place in the provisional Order of Merit.
That drastic drop in the Order of Merit has knocked an eye-watering £485,000 off his world ranking.
It’s the largest amount of money ever lost from a single tournament in PDC history.
‘Snakebite’ was at a loss for trying to explain his poor performance at Alexandra Palace.
“To be honest I don’t know what happened,” Wright said.
”Obviously I was nowhere near good enough to compete against Jim Williams, who is a fantastic player.
“I haven’t got a clue, practice has been going well but I don’t know what happened.
“Jim was the better player on the day. Maybe it would have been a different game if I’d hit one of the doubles to win the second set but I didn’t feel confident of actually getting it to be honest; it was ‘hopefully I hit it’ rather than ‘this one’s going in’.”
Peter Wright won the World Championship in 2022
PA
But Wright remained sporting after his devastating defeat with Williams revealing the kind words he received after the match.
Williams said: “He’s a gentleman honestly. He wished me all the best and he apologised for not playing great but I’ve been in his shoes, it’s tough.
“The guy won the European Championship didn’t he?
Jim Williams paid tribute to Peter Wright after the match
PA
“So it’s difficult because even though he isn’t playing well, you know that at any point he can flick the switch.”
Williams could face another former world champion in the next round against Raymond van Barneveld.
The Dutchman makes his first appearance of the World Championships this evening when he faces off against Radek Szaganski.
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