Watch both sessions live on Sky Sports Darts on Wednesday
Wednesday 18 December 2019 22:29, UK
James Wade will want to avoid joining the growing group of high-profile casualties when he gets his World Darts Championship underway on Wednesday.
The three-time Alexandra Palace semi-finalist begins his latest bid for a maiden world title against Ritchie Edhouse, who saw off Russia's Boris Koltsov in the opening round, with Wade having already seen a number of notable names crash out of the competition during the first week.
Second seed Rob Cross is the biggest name to fall so far, with Kim Huybrechts storming to a straight-sets win over the 2018 world champion, while debutant Luke Woodhouse caused one of the upsets of the tournament to dump out last year's finalist and fourth seed Michael Smith.
Lithuania's Darius Labanauskas accounted for world No 9 Ian White, with Wade - starting the week as the eighth seed - now looking to stop himself being the fourth player from the world's top 10 to be knocked out in their opening match.
Jermaine Wattimena also departed after the 18th seed lost a five-set thriller with 2019 quarter-finalist Luke Humphries, with last year's record of 13 seeds biting the dust in their opening matches looking under threat of being beaten.
Raymond van Barneveld's exit arguably caused the most conjecture due to his emotional retirement, despite the fact that the five-time world champion was not seeded for his final World Championship campaign.
Top seed Michael van Gerwen was the first seed to have progressed so far but he survived a major scare against former BDO world champion Jelle Klaasen, recovering from a set down to defeat his arch-nemesis in a nervy affair.
Former BDO World Champion Stephen Bunting is the other seeded player beginning his tournament on Wednesday, with the 2015 quarter-finalist looking to avoid losing his opening match for the fourth year running. Bunting takes on Spain's Jose Justicia in the final match of the afternoon session.
Coverage of the PDC World Championship is live exclusively on Sky Sports Darts and the action continues through to the final on New Year's Day. If you are out and about you can follow with regular updates, clips, features & reports at skysports.com/darts, our app for mobile devices and @SkySportsDarts
