Jeffrey de Graaf he opened his PDC World Darts Championships campaign in which he won 3:1. But it was true Rashad Sweeting who was the iconic hero of the piece, while the history-making Bahamian put on a great show.
There was a lot of buzz on social media about Sweeting, aka “Candy Man,” who came on stage the wrong way, but once he got on stage, he proved to be a solid performer against the former Dutch Swede, who will now face him in the second round with Gary Anderson.
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De Graaf’s start to the doubles tie was a surprise, and Sweeting began to bide his time. He hit a decent number of shots in most of the visits, and when De Graaf was seven darts short in the first set, Sweeting took a 3-1 lead.
It was almost the perfect tonic for Sweeting, who put the darts at 2-0. But after being solid, it was his turn and he pushed to miss the outer ring. He missed two darts in the second minute and De Graaf shot 107 to equalize.
He then took the lead. He ran through the third set unanswered while Sweeting looked like he was losing. Unfortunately, Sweeting had one more surprise in store for the audience.
He made a brilliant knock of 126 to lead to a 2-1 deficit, although De Graaf eventually got over the line to survive the scare and end the hopes of his opponent, who walks away but leaves Ally Pally as a cult hero.
Next up is Ricardo Pietreczko, who put the most pressure on Luke Humphries last year but hasn’t started playing any better since then. He will face Xiaochen Zong, who always makes such promises but has yet to deliver on them on the Ally Pally stage, although apart from last year he has had trouble getting into the UK, so tonight he will be looking for another chance at his first victory.
