In the opening sessions of the upcoming World Darts Championships, one player will be required to take the stage twice. According to Kim Huybrechtswho himself competed at Alexandra Palace this month, that schedule is expected to change.
The opening match of the World Darts Championship will be played by: Thibault Tricole AND Joe Comito. The winner of the first round match will face the current world champion Luke Humphries in the last match of the evening. It has long been tradition for the defending champion to face the winner of the opening match on the opening night of the World Darts Championship, but as mentioned, Huybrechts does not seem to agree with this.
“I think it’s outrageous that they’re doing this,” Huybrechts jokes on the Double Top podcast. “It’s really outrageous, I don’t think it’s acceptable. So far, there was one time when the reigning world champion was eliminated straight away and it was John Part. As for the rest, we weren’t even close to being shocked. Plus Kevin Doets last year against Michael Smith.”
Luke Humphries will face either Thibault Tricole or Joe Comito in his opening match of the 2025 World Darts Championship
Huybrechts is particularly concerned that this is happening during the most important tournament of the year. “Now we have Tricole against Comito. The latter came all the way from Australia and may surprise you. They’ll go “wow” and then they’ll pat him on the back and say, “Hey, you’ll have to throw again in an hour.” While the remaining 94 players have a day or days to let everything sink in. These guys have an hour and a half and then they have to compete against the best darter in the world. It’s like Club Brugge in the Champions League being happy with a point against Manchester City and then having to go straight back into the game against Liverpool.
“In no other sport do you experience something like this,” Huybrechts concludes. “So again, I don’t think anything like this will happen, that a world champion will be on the pitch any time soon. Why does it necessarily have to happen on day one? It’s not fair.”
