Peter Wright suffers unwanted 15-year first as he suffers fourth straight first round defeat

Peter Wright’s woes continued at Players Championship 4 as he was once again beaten in the first round.

Snakebite averaged 85.94 as he fell to a 6-4 defeat against world No.82 Thomas Lovely.

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It marked the two-time world champion’s fourth consecutive opening round exit.

Wright has yet to win a match on the ProTour so far this year, meaning he has not earned any prize money either.

Players Championship events do not award prize money to first round losers, with the winnings starting at £1,250 for reaching round two.

Wright’s unwanted first

As a result of losing in the first round at every ProTour event of 2026, Wright has now dropped out of the top 32 in the world rankings.

His latest loss sees him slip to 33rd, with Andrew Gilding leapfrogging him in the process.

It is the first time since 2011 that Wright has fallen out of the top 32 on the PDC Order of Merit.

The 55-year-old could find himself further down the rankings before he returns to the oche.

Wright failed to come through qualifying for either of the year’s first two European Tour events.

It means he will not be part of the field at the Poland Darts Open in Krakow this weekend.

Instead, he is next expected to feature at Players Championship 5 in Leicester on Monday.

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Wright’s European Tour absences represent another unwanted first for the Scot.

Prior to losing out in qualifying for the Poland Darts Open and European Darts Trophy, he had never failed to qualify for a EuroTour event dating back to 2012.

In that time, he had only failed to appear if he had withdrawn from the event or opted not to play.

Wright’s recent woes

Wright made the quarter-finals of four EuroTour events last year, most recently at October’s German Darts Championship.

However, he has earned just £750 in prize money so far in 2026 having failed to reach the main draw of the World Masters last month.

The former world No.1 was beaten by Graham Hall in the last 64 of the preliminary stage.

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It followed his second round exit to Arno Merk at the PDC World Darts Championship in December.

Wright has earned just over £6million during his PDC career dating back to 2004.

He has also won 11 PDC premier events including his two PDC World Darts Championship triumphs.

The last of his major victories came at the 2023 European Championship.