Luke Humphries fended off a valiant Gabriel Clemens fightback at the World Darts Championship as Michael van Gerwen and Gary Anderson advanced to set up a titanic round four clash.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The blockbuster \u00a35m event saw Humphries maintain his title pursuit by surviving a magnificent Clemens remontada.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The 2023\/24 World Champion breezed into a 2-0 advantage, before producing a 12-dart break in the deciding leg of the third set to take a commanding lead. However, Clemens – who became the first German to average over 100 at the World Championship – launched an astounding comeback.
The former semi-finalist took out checkouts of 81, 121 and 116 to win the fourth set in straight legs before winning a set-deciding leg to reduce the deficit to 3-2.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Clemens then led 2-1 in an incredibly tense sixth set, but Humphries broke throw with a composed 50 checkout after the German missed three set darts, before taking out a fantastic 12-dart hold on 81 to win an epic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I didn’t expect that onslaught from Gabriel, he was the better player in the last three sets,” admitted Humphries, who will face either Nathan Aspinall or Kevin Doets in round four.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“You have to give credit to Gabriel because he pushed me and put me under pressure. He made me flustered and that’s what you need to do to me and Luke Littler.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“If it went to 3-3, he would have had the initiative. I’m really, really proud of myself how I took out the 50 and then the 81 in the final set.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“It gave me an eye-opener. You have to stand up and ask what version of you will come out. I knew that the version where I didn’t panic was there, and that’s what you need to be World Champion.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Van Gerwen was another former World Champion to progress to round four as he dismissed Arno Merk 4-1 to set up a mouth-watering clash with Anderson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Dutch superstar eased into a 2-0 lead, although Merk fabulously took out checkouts of 145, 120 and 67 to get off the mark in the third set.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, Van Gerwen remained unfazed, winning six of the final eight legs to progress comfortably to the last 16.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Overall I put in a decent performance,” said Van Gerwen, who crashed in nine maximums and took out 50% of his double attempts during his round three triumph.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“In patches I played some really good darts, and with that in your mind, you know you are capable of doing more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I’m really looking forward to playing Gary. When you play him, there’s always room for fireworks.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I think it will be one of the best games to watch in the next round.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Anderson reached round four by winning a thrilling deciding-set contest against Jermaine Wattimena, which required a tie-break and saw the Scot miss double 12 for a nine-darter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The two-time World Champion missed three match darts at 3-1 up and one more at 3-2 up, but regained his footing, hammering in a tournament-high 14 maximums across the match to get over the line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I bottled it a few times in that game,<\/em>” confessed Anderson, who averaged north of a ton for the second game in a row. “I can still play. Now that my son is playing darts, it still gives me a buzz to play.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Michael knows what he’s going to get with me. I’ve known him for a long time. It depends which Michael turns up!”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Gian van Veen continued to break new ground by reaching the last 16, defeating Madars Razma 4-1 with relative ease.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The European Champion led 3-0, and despite losing the fourth set in straight legs to the Latvian number one, Van Veen steamrolled the last stanza and took out the final leg of the match with a stylish 125 checkout.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rob Cross put up another solid performance in defeating Damon Heta with a whitewash win to set up a tantalising round four clash with Luke Littler on Monday evening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The 2017\/18 World Champion survived set darts from Heta to take a 2-0 lead, and remained sturdy throughout the contest to record his second straight-sets win of the tournament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Elsewhere, Ryan Searle produced his best Alexandra Palace average to date, demolishing Martin Schindler 4-0 with a 102.29 average.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Somerset star capitalised on poor doubling from the German number one, as Searle won the last nine legs on the spin to close out a memorable victory and set up a round four clash with James Hurrell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The World Darts Championship continues later today with yet another festive double-session, as round three concludes and the first two round four fixtures take place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The afternoon session will see former World Matchplay Champion Nathan Aspinall and former UK Open semi-finalist Ricky Evans feature, whilst the first game of the evening will see World Cup winner Josh Rock take on Callan Rydz in the last game of round three.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The final two evening games will then kick off round four, as reigning champion Littler continues his bid for back-to-back titles against Cross, whilst Searle takes on Hurrell. Luke Humphries fended off a valiant Gabriel Clemens fightback at the World Darts Championship as Michael van Gerwen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7459,"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-7457","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
“I could have had that wrapped up at 4-1 quite easily, but he got the better of me… we won’t talk about double 12!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/strong>
Round Three<\/strong> Results: <\/strong>Ryan Searle 4-0 Martin Schindler (3-1, 3-1, 3-0, 3-0); Rob Cross 4-0 Damon Heta (3-1, 3-2, 3-2, 3-1); Gary Anderson 4-3 Jermaine Wattimena (3-1, 0-3, 3-1, 3-2, 2-3, 2-3, 5-3); Gian van Veen 4-1 Madars Razma (3-1, 3-1, 3-0, 0-3, 3-0); Luke Humphries 4-2 Gabriel Clemens (3-1, 3-1, 3-2, 0-3, 2-3, 3-2); Michael van Gerwen 4-1 Arno Merk (3-1, 3-0, 1-3, 3-1, 3-1)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"