2020/21 William Hill World Darts Championship Draw Made
Peter Wright will begin his defence of the William Hill World Darts Championship against either Steve West or Amit Gilitwala, with the draw for the sport's biggest tournament having been made on Thursday.
Scottish star Wright claimed his maiden World Championship triumph at Alexandra Palace last year, defeating Michael van Gerwen before emotionally lifting the Sid Waddell Trophy.
The 50-year-old has been drawn against either England's West or Indian number one Gilitwala as he starts his bid to retain the title on the tournament's opening night on Tuesday December 15.
World number one Van Gerwen will play Scotland's Ryan Murray or Philippines qualifier Lourence Ilagan, while third seed Gerwyn Price plays Luke Woodhouse or Jamie Lewis.
Fourth seed Michael Smith, the runner-up two years ago, will play either Jason Lowe or Russia's Dmitriy Gorbunov, while 2018 champion Rob Cross has drawn World Grand Prix finalist Dirk van Duijvenbode or World Youth Champion Bradley Brooks.
Nathan Aspinall, the sixth seed who has been a semi-finalist in the past two years, will meet either debutant Scott Waites - the two-time Lakeside Champion and former Grand Slam of Darts winner - or Canada's Matt Campbell.
Two-time champion Gary Anderson plays Latvia's Madars Razma or Japan's Toru Suzuki, while 2011 and 2012 winner Adrian Lewis meets either Australian ace Damon Heta or America's Danny Baggish.
James Wade, who has reached two televised finals this year, drew Callan Rydz or James Bailey, while Grand Slam of Darts champion Jose de Sousa plays Ross Smith or David Evans.
Premier League champion Glen Durrant will play Brazil's Diogo Portela or Steve Beaton, who is playing in a record 30th consecutive World Championship.
Legendary star Paul Lim, the 66-year-old who played in his first of 24 World Championships in 1982, has drawn two-time quarter-finalist Luke Humphries in a stand-out first round tie - with the winner moving through to play World Matchplay champion Dimitri Van den Bergh.
Lisa Ashton will take on Adam Hunt in a tasty first round tie, with the winner to play Jamie Hughes, while fellow Women's Qualifier Deta Hedman meets Andy Boulton, as Stephen Bunting awaits the winner.
The draw, which was made by Wayne Mardle live on Sky Sports News on Thursday, sees the top 32 players from the PDC Order of Merit seeded through to round two, with the first round featuring the ProTour Order of Merit Qualifiers up against the Qualifiers & International Representatives.
Global coverage will be headlined by coverage on the dedicated Sky Sports Darts channel, while the PDC's international broadcast partners will include RTL7 in the Netherlands, DAZN in various territories, Fox Sports in Australia, Sky Sport in New Zealand, PDCTV for Rest of the World Subscribers and at matchroom.live.
Tickets for the William Hill World Darts Championship go on sale from 1200 GMT on Thursday December 3. See www.pdc.tv/tickets for information.
2020/21 William Hill World Darts Championship
Draw Bracket - Second Round Onwards
(1) Michael van Gerwen v Ryan Murray/Lourence Ilagan
(32) Ricky Evans v Mickey Mansell/Haupai Puha
(16) Joe Cullen v Wayne Jones/Ciaran Teehan
(17) Jonny Clayton v John Henderson/Marko Kantele
(8) Dave Chisnall v Keegan Brown/Ryan Meikle
(25) Danny Noppert v Martijn Kleermaker/Cameron Carolissen
(9) Dimitri Van den Bergh v Luke Humphries/Paul Lim
(24) Jermaine Wattimena v Derk Telnekes/Nick Kenny
(4) Michael Smith v Jason Lowe/Dmitriy Gorbunov
(29) Devon Petersen v Steve Lennon/Daniel Larsson
(13) Gary Anderson v Madars Razma/Toru Suzuki
(20) Mensur Suljovic v Maik Kuivenhoven/Matthew Edgar
(5) Rob Cross v Dirk van Duijvenbode/Bradley Brooks
(28) Jamie Hughes v Adam Hunt/Lisa Ashton
(12) Glen Durrant v Steve Beaton/Diogo Portela
(21) Adrian Lewis v Damon Heta/Danny Baggish
(2) Peter Wright v Steve West/Amit Gilitwala
(31) Gabriel Clemens v Andy Hamilton/Nico Kurz
(15) Krzysztof Ratajski v Ryan Joyce/Karel Sedlacek
(18) Simon Whitlock v Darius Labanauskas/Chengan Liu
(7) James Wade v Callan Rydz/James Bailey
(26) Stephen Bunting v Andy Boulton/Deta Hedman
(10) Ian White v Kim Huybrechts/Di Zhuang
(23) Jeffrey de Zwaan v Ryan Searle/Danny Lauby
(3) Gerwyn Price v Luke Woodhouse/Jamie Lewis
(30) Brendan Dolan v Mike De Decker/Edward Foulkes
(14) Jose de Sousa v Ross Smith/David Evans
(19) Mervyn King v Max Hopp/Gordon Mathers
(6) Nathan Aspinall v Scott Waites/Matt Campbell
(27) Vincent van der Voort v Ron Meulenkamp/Boris Krcmar
(11) Daryl Gurney v William O'Connor/Niels Zonneveld
(22) Chris Dobey v Jeff Smith/Keane Barry