WADE: “I’VE LET MYSELF DOWN”

By Aaron Nijjar 

JAMES WADE believes he is capable of adding another major to his remarkable tally of 10 TV titles.  

‘The Machine’ has enjoyed a good start to the season on the ProTour, reaching the last-16 of the Players Championship 3 before making the quarter-finals in Players Championship 4.  

However, Wade is absent from the Premier League line-up for a third straight season and has endured three successive second-round exits at the PDC World Darts Championship.  

World No.14 Wade enters the UK Open at Butlin’s Minehead Resort with a bye into the fourth round, starting Friday, as he aims to impress and contend for his fourth career title at the event.  

The Surrey thrower who counts the World Matchplay and Premier League among the 10 TV titles won in his glittering career, admits he would be disappointed to finish his career without any further success in the PDC majors.  

He told the Love The Darts podcast: “I still know that I’m good enough for a top-eight player, more than good enough. Other people might not think that, but that’s how I feel and that’s how I know I am.  

“It’s not something I’m relishing, not something I’m going to enjoy, but I need to get back up there for my own sanity, I think, because I believe I should be there. I feel like I’ve let myself down by being in the positions I’ve put myself in.”  

He added: “I’ve won more tournaments than most and not many people know that. I’ve done myself an injustice, how I’ve conducted myself at times and that’s my own fault. That’s not a legacy that’s celebrated as it would be if it was other players that have not won as much but have got more. 

“I need to do it, for personal reasons. I know where I should be and if I finish up the game where I am now, that would be a failure in my eyes.  

“I know I can still win TV titles. I know what I can do and I know what I’m capable of. I don’t have to be at my very best to do that, but the timing’s got to be right. 

“I’ve just got to be in the right place at the right time for myself and then hopefully that I can get myself up for the rankings, where the early doors and the draws are a little bit kinder to me.” 

The 41-year-old is one of the all-time greats in the sport, he has remarkably reached the semi-finals of at least one TV major every year since 2005, showcasing his incredible consistency and talent at the highest level.  

Image by Taylor Lanning.