NEWCOMER Josh Rock made it through to the third round of the PDC World Championship in rapid fashion, taking less than 25 minutes to defeat Callan Rydz in straight sets at the Alexandra Palace.
Northern Ireland’s Rock, who is now rated as joint-fourth favourite to lift the title on his World Championship debut, made light work of last year’s quarter-finalist.
Though the tie between two of the sport’s brightest young talents didn’t live up to its billing, Rock was in control of the contest throughout as he dropped just four sets against an out-of-sorts Rydz.
“I’m happy to win but I’m still disappointed that I haven’t produced my best game yet,” Rock admitted.
“I’m frustrated but it’s hard when you’re on that stage, you try that extra bit harder because we’re all here to be World Champion.
“I was expecting Callan to play a lot better than he did; once I knew he wasn’t up to his usual standard I slacked off mentally which was a mistake.
“I’m going to go away and enjoy Christmas with my family and I know I will be far better when I come back after the break.”
Thursday will see a double session of second round action take place, as Dirk van Duijvenbode begins his campaign against Karel Sedlacek in the afternoon.
The evening session will see two-time World Champion Gary Anderson take on Madars Razma, with James Wade and Luke Humphries also among the players in action.
The Cazoo World Darts Championship is being broadcast live on Sky Sports in the UK & Ireland, through the PDC’s worldwide broadcast partners including DAZN and Viaplay, and on PDCTV (excluding UK, Ireland, Germany, Austria & Switzerland based subscribers).
Click here for match stats and results.
2022/23 Cazoo World Darts Championship
Wednesday December 21
Afternoon Session
2x First Round, 2x Second Round
Darius Labanauskas 3-2 John O’Shea (2-3, 2-3, 3-1, 3-2, 3-1) (R1)
Martijn Kleermaker 3-0 Xicheng Han (3-0, 3-1, 3-1) (R1)
Josh Rock 3-0 Callan Rydz (3-2, 3-1, 3-1) (R2)
Dave Chisnall 3-1 Andrew Gilding (0-3, 3-0, 3-2, 3-2) (R2)
Evening Session
4x Second Round
Mervyn King 3-2 Danny Baggish (3-2, 3-2, 2-3, 2-3, 3-1) (R2)
Gabriel Clemens 3-0 William O‘Connor (3-2, 3-2, 3-0) (R2)
Michael van Gerwen 3-0 Lewy Williams (3-1, 3-0, 3-0) (R2)
Stephen Bunting 3-1 Leonard Gates (2-3, 3-1, 3-1, 3-1) (R2)
Thursday December 22
Afternoon Session (1230 GMT)
4x Second Round
Krzysztof Ratajski v Danny Jansen (R2)
Ryan Searle v Adam Gawlas (R2)
Mensur Suljovic v Mike De Decker (R2)
Dirk van Duijvenbode v Karel Sedlacek (R2)
Evening Session (1900 GMT)
4x Second Round
Gary Anderson v Madars Razma (R2)
James Wade v Jim Williams (R2)
Luke Humphries v Florian Hempel (R2)
Vincent van der Voort v Cameron Menzies (R2)
All second round matches best of five sets
—–ENDS—–
Images: PDC
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