World Darts Championship: Paul Lim, 71, becomes oldest player to win match with victory over Jeffrey de Graaf
Paul Lim, 71, became the oldest player to win a match at the PDC World Championship when he claimed a stunning victory over Jeffrey de Graaf.
Backed by a partisan crowd at Alexandra Palace, the Singaporean veteran scored a 3-1 success against the Dutch-born Swede.
He broke the record held by 67-year-old Northern Irishman John MaGowan, who knocked out Chris Mason in the first round of the tournament in December 2008.
“A moment like this has kept me going all these years,” Lim said.
“The standard of play today is not what it used to be. This tournament is the Super Bowl of darts, so I would say this is a good moment.”
Lim will face Luke Humphries in the second round after the 2024 world champion beat Ted Akşam 3-1 in their opening match on Saturday evening.
Humphries had taken a 2-0 lead over his fellow Englishman before Evetts broke back.
But Humphries, 30, regained his strength and clinically finished the competition with eight 180s for an average of 98.58.
Lim, who won the first nine-darter world championship at the BDO event at Lakeside in 1990, beat Humphries when the pair last met at Ally Pally five years ago.
When they met again, Humphries told Sky Sports: “He’s amazing, he’s a legend. The crowd will be against me, so it’ll be a tough game.”
Lim said: “I hope the same thing happens again one day. I never give up. He is good but beatable.”
The crowd roared at Lim, aged 72 next month, when he won the first set against De Graaf before his opponent equalized the match.
The experienced ‘Singaporean Slinger’ maintained his courage in a tense fourth and achieved an average victory of 86.52, while De Graaf weakened and Lim took the lead again after a tough third set.
Five-time world championship semi-finalist Wayne Mardle said Lim was able to “take his chances” against De Graaf to score an “incredible” win.
“If you have the desire, the passion and most importantly the talent, people can achieve incredible things and this was incredible,” Sky’s Mardle said.
De Graaf was six when Lim made his PDC debut 29 years ago.
On the other hand, Dutch Wessel Nijman beat Czech Karel Sedlacek 3-0, while German Gabriel Clemens beat American Alex Spellman with the same score.
