Luke Humphries breezed through to round three at the World Darts Championship with a whitewash win over Paul Lim, as Gian van Veen produced a mesmerising performance at the Alexandra Palace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
World Champion Humphries continued his bid to win back the title with a 3-0 demolition of Singapore’s hugely popular veteran Lim.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The world number two raced into a two-set lead by taking the opening six legs without reply, averaging north of 108 in a superb run.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Humphries’ pace slowed down in the third set as Lim claimed a solitary leg, but the former World Champion cleaned up the third set, ending the contest with a 50% double success rate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I planned to win in straight sets and tonight there was no unnecessary drama,” said Humphries, who will face Gabriel Clemens in round three.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“It was a great first leg from myself with a 12-darter and the first two sets were really clinical. I scored and finished really well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“If you’re not getting a lot thrown back at you, it can get a lot harder. It felt like I was really comfortable and I relaxed too much.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I know that when I come back from Christmas, I’ll be more consistent. I won’t have these 80s average sets – when the pressure is on me, that’s when I’m consistent.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Van Veen announced his title intentions by delivering the best performance of the tournament so far in his 3-1 triumph over Alan Soutar thanks to a monstrous 108.28 average and just three treble-less visits across the contest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The European Champion initially trailed 1-0 and survived a set dart from Soutar in the second set’s decider, but the Dutchman won seven legs on the spin to seal a memorable win and reach round three for the first time in his career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“There’s so much I can take from this game going forward,” said Van Veen, who will face Madars Razma in round three.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I got a bit lucky in the second set, but you need a bit of luck in these kind of tournaments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“The last six legs are some of the best I’ve ever played, especially on this stage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“This Christmas is going to be the best one of my life so far, still being in the World Championship. It was a massive goal for myself and thankfully I’ve achieved it this year.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nathan Aspinall cruised to a whitewash win over Leonard Gates in their round two repeat match-up from last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The former World Matchplay champion brushed the American aside 3-1 in legs in each of the three sets to comfortably progress to the last 32, where he will face Kevin Doets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“It was a straightforward win, I did what I had to do,” stated Aspinall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“In the first game I was a bag of nerves, but I felt really good tonight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I feel like I haven’t been as focused as I should be, but I’ve saved a lot of mental energy which I think I’ll need after Christmas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“My confidence is the highest it’s ever been by an absolute country mile. I’m confident I can have a deep run.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ricky Evans came out on top of a marathon affair against James Wade, winning a fifth set tie-break 6-4 in legs to emerge the victor of a 3-2 cracker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Evans squandered seven match darts and survived one miss from Wade, before breaking throw in the ninth leg and taking out a clutch 99 finish to advance to round three.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Charlie Manby, who Evans will play after the Christmas break, continued his dream debut with another stellar performance to see off Adam Sevada in straight sets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The 20-year-old won the first six legs on the bounce and conceded just a sole leg, converting 47% of his double attempts to seal an impressive victory over the American.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Doets put an end to David Munyua’s dream debut by condemning the Kenyan trailblazer to a straight-sets defeat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Despite the 3,000-strong crowd – which featured representatives from the Kenyan High Commission in the UK – roaring on Munyua, the Dutchman maintained composure to deliver a professional performance, dropping just two legs across the match to confirm his round three status.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Humphries’ round three opponent Clemens delivered yet another upset in knocking out Wessel Nijman with a whitewash win.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A former semi-finalist at Alexandra Palace, Clemens capitalised on a profligate display on the outer-ring from Nijman to battle through and reach round three for the fifth time in his career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Razma reached the last 32 for the third year straight at the World Championship after defeating debutant Darren Beveridge 3-1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Latvian arrowsmith produced a stellar performance, averaging north of 97 and hitting 59% of his double attempts as he came back from 2-0 down in legs in the fourth set to seal the match.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The darting action continues today, as round two concludes with the final day of action before Christmas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Three-time World Champion Michael van Gerwen faces an in-form William O’Connor, and two-time World Champion Gary Anderson continues his campaign against Connor Scutt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sixth seed Danny Noppert and World Cup winning pair Josh Rock and Daryl Gurney all also feature, whilst Peter Wright – another double World Champion – headlines the afternoon session against Arno Merk. Luke Humphries breezed through to round three at the World Darts Championship with a whitewash win over Paul<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7366,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[59],"class_list":["post-7365","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsbeat","tag-darts"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t
ROUND TWO RESULTS: <\/strong>Madars Razma 3-1\u00a0Darren Beveridge (3-0, 3-2, 1-3, 3-2); Gabriel Clemens 3-0\u00a0Wessel Nijman (3-1, 3-2, 3-1); Kevin Doets 3-0\u00a0David Munyua (3-1, 3-0, 3-1); Ricky Evans 3-2 James Wade (3-2, 1-3, 3-2, 0-3, 6-4); Gian Van Veen 3-1 Alan Soutar (1-3, 3-2, 3-0, 3-0); Nathan Aspinall 3-0 Leonard Gates (3-1, 3-1, 3-1); Luke Humphries 3-0 Paul Lim (3-0, 3-0, 3-1); Charlie Manby 3-0 Adam Sevada (3-0, 3-0, 3-1)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"