Peter Wright's reign as darts world champion has come to a sorry end as Kim Huybrechts claimed the biggest win of his career at Alexandra Palace.
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Wright wore a colourful Christmas shirt on the oche, but that was the only thing that sparkled from the Scot as Huybrechts cruised to a 4-1 victory and a last-16 date with fellow Belgian Dimitri van den Bergh.
"I beat the name Peter Wright, but the person Peter Wright wasn't there," Huybrechts told Sky Sports.
"Normally he's about 20 times better than this ... I did what I had to do, but I'm not going to be arrogant or cocky. But I'm a happy man to go through to the next round."
World No.2 Wright took the first set 3-0 and Huybrechts, who came to London battling to stay in the world's top 32, appeared to be up against it.
But he seized the initiative by winning seven of the next eight legs and a cool 67 checkout gave him a 3-1 advantage.
Wright tried to fight back in the fifth set, but he missed double 18 to extend the match and Huybrechts stepped in to seal matters before a shocked crowd.
Gerwyn Price, the 2021 world champion, vowed to win his second world crown after claiming a maiden TV victory over Raymond van Barneveld.
Five-time world king van Barneveld's rise up the rankings after twice retiring from the sport had provided the feel-good story at this year's tournament.
But the 55-year-old was whitewashed 4-0 as world's best showed there is no room for sentiment on darts' biggest stage.
"I can say I beat Raymond on TV, right? Come on," Price said after avenging two defeats by Van Barneveld at last month's Grand Slam of Darts and ending a run of six successive losses to the Dutchman.
"I'm happy with that one. I'm the world No.1 and I'm here to win. I'm not here to make up the numbers."
Elsewhere, Germany's Gabriel Clemens won six of the final seven legs to beat Jim Williams 4-3 and book a date with either Danny Noppert or Alan Soutar.
Josh Rock knocked out 10th seed Nathan Aspinall by the same score, while van den Bergh and Jonny Clayton had earlier eased through with respective 4-1 victories over Brendan Dolan and Krzysztof Ratajski.
Australian Associated Press
