Whitlock stuns van Gerwen as the darts shocks keep coming in first World Matchplay outside Blackpool

Australian Whitlock has stated that his strategy for the week is to pretend he is not in Milton Keynes but at the Winter Gardens - the tournament's annual home since 1994 until coronavirus forced this year's event behind closed doors.

Two-time champion van Gerwen failed to progress beyond the second round for a third successive year and joins reigning Blackpool champion Rob Cross and world number three Gerwyn Price in making an early exit.

After 15 successive defeats to van Gerwen stretching back to 2016, Whitlock won the first five frames and was always at least four ahead for the rest of the match as the Dutchman missed 20 of his 24 double attempts.

Whitlock said: "I'm over the moon but I always believe I can beat the best. Michael is the best player on the planet but he had an off-day and I took advantage.

"Experience counts, and along with a love for the game that's what keeps us older players going."

Whitlock will face Gary Anderson in the quarter-finals , after the Scot beat James Wade 11-8 in the battle of the former champions.

2018 winner Anderson, the only player left in the field to have lifted the title, threw nine 180s as he took control from 3-2 down by winning seven of the next eight legs.

A hat-trick of legs saw Wade fight back to 9-7 but Anderson held his nerve and said: "I found it fine playing the online darts during lockdown but I'm still finding this very weird playing in front of no fans. But I've got that winning feeling."

Last year's runner-up Michael Smith became the first player through to the last eight following a dramatic 14-12 tie-break win over Mensur Suljovic.

Smith, who piled in 10 180s, recovered from deficits of 8-5 and 9-6 to force the tie-break. From 12-12, Smith secured a break of throw and then made the most of Suljovic's three spurned doubles for victory.

"People associate me getting annoyed with myself as a sign that I'm giving up but it's not at all - it's me trying to get myself going," said Smith, whose quarter-final opponent is Polish number one Krzysztof Ratajski.

He fought off a stubborn Gabriel Clemens, who trailed all match until the 18th leg and then took a 10-9 lead only for the Pole to win a trio of legs for a 12-10 victory.

Tuesday night also featured the final frist-round match in which Dimitri Van den Bergh was a debut winner, 10-6 against Nathan Aspinall.

Always in control, the Belgian condemned Aspinall to back-to-back first round defeats and avenged his loss in the World Championship.

Van den Burgh said: "I miss the fans and I miss their support but still I feel at home on the stage. I just feel so relaxed up there.

The second round concludes with four matches on Wednesday night, when world champion Peter Wright takes on Glen Durrant.