Luke Woodhouse stunned World Grand Prix champion Mike De Decker with a 3-1 victory to book his place in the World Darts Championship third round on Tuesday afternoon.
World No. 35 Luke Woodhouse stunned reigning World Grand Prix champion and 24th seed Mike De Decker in the second round of the World Darts Championship on Tuesday, with “Woody” prevailing 3-1 at Ally Pally.
Woodhouse averaged 88.38 on his way to beating the Belgian, throwing a total of four 180s, whilst also providing the only tonne-plus checkout of the encounter with a 105.
The Bewdley-born 36-year-old raced to a 2-0 lead, but De Decker responded in the third set with three successive legs, however Woody kept his composure to win 3-1 in the fourth set to book his place in the third round.
It follows an impressive 3-0 win over Lourence Ilagan in the first round on Monday afternoon, in which Woodhouse averaged 94.38, dropping just two legs in the process.
Victory means Woody matches his career-best finish at the World Darts Championship at the very minimum, having only reached as far as the third round once previously, when he lost 4-2 to Dimitri Van den Bergh in 2020.
De Decker and Woodhouse’s clash marks an end to Tuesday’s afternoon session in the English capital, with Jeffrey de Graaf vs Rashad Sweeting, Ricardo Pietreczko vs Zong Xiao Chen, Ryan Meikle vs Fallon Sherrock and Peter Wright vs Wesley Plaisier set to take place during the evening session.
WATCH: Luke Woodhouse Beats Mike De Decker 3-1
WOODY ELIMINATES DE DECKER!
Luke Woodhouse eliminates the World Grand Prix champion, as he beats Mike De Decker 3-1 to book his place in the third round.
📺 https://t.co/pIQvhqYxEj #WCDarts | R2 pic.twitter.com/vO3nThoO8W
— PDC Darts (@OfficialPDC) December 17, 2024
Up next for Woodhouse, in the third round, he faces the winner of Saturday’s clash between ninth seed Damon Heta and “The Sniper” Connor Scutt.
The best betting sites in the UK have Luke Littler as the 2/1 favourite to lift this year’s World Darts Championship, having finished second on his debut last year, while last year’s champion Luke Humphries is the second favourite at 11/4.
