Rydz claims dream debut win over Lennon in sudden death decider

Callan Rydz enjoyed a dream debut at the PDC World Championship defeating Steve Lennon in a victory best summed up as the battle of the whitewash sets.

Both players kept claiming sets with whitewashes until the decider where Rydz led 2-0 but was forced into sudden death.

'The Riot' hit an 89 average with four 180's and was very similar to his opponent but had the difference on doubles with 32 compared to 25.

Lennon made a superb start to proceedings winning the first set in consecutive legs with a 128 checkout on the bull proving a benchmark for that.

Rydz was really behind in the averages but finally started to motor in the second set on his Alexandra Palace debut.

He responded to Lennon's whitewash set by hitting one of his own for parity. He followed that up by making it four legs on the spin to hit the front in the third set and went on from there to make it six with Lennon down at just 23 percent on the doubles.

It was 2-1 to Rydz and it looked out of nowhere like the Bedlington ace was heading towards the next round. Despite that though Lennon came back and made it a fourth consecutive whitewash set as it was sent to a decider.

Could it be another whitewash set? It looked like it with Rydz him up 2-0 and with the throw but Lennon didn't give up pinning a 61 checkout to reduce the gap in this all important decider.

A 56 checkout saw Lennon send it all the way, would Rydz buckle or would he surge through. He missed a 161 to move through with Lennon sat on 87. The Bedlington thrower hit a 25 checkout though to claim victory on debut.

World Darts Championship 2020 schedule

Monday December 16

Steve Lennon (91.92) 2-3 (89.28) Callan Rydz (R1)
20:10 William O’Connor vs Marko Kantele (R1)
21:10 Vincent van der Voort vs Keane Barry (R1)
22:10 Gary Anderson [5] vs Brendan Dolan (R2)

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