Darius Labanauskas and Luke Humphries also through as last eight takes shape
Sunday 29 December 2019 14:41, UK
Dimitri Van den Bergh fought back from 3-1 down to beat two-time champion Adrian Lewis and reach the quarter-final of the World Darts Championship .
With the Fallon Sherrock fairytale now over, the afternoon session in north London threw up three more intriguing stories as two world youth champions and a groundbreaking Lithuanian ensured the tournament continued to enthral.
Nicknamed the Dreammaker and famed for his dance moves at the end of his walk-on, things looked like turning sour for Van den Bergh as Lewis managed to make a fast start for the first time.
But faced with a two-set deficit, Van den Bergh dug deep to find his best and battle his way into the last eight for the second time in three years, where a date with 12th seed Nathan Aspinall awaits on Sunday.
Lewis has enjoyed a barren few years but hoped a return to Alexandra Palace, where he has reached three finals, would stir him into something like his best form - and the early signs were promising.
Having had to play catch-up during his first two matches, Lewis hit the front early against two-time world youth champion Van den Bergh, firing a 123 finish and a 10-dart leg on his way to a 2-0 lead early on.
Van den Bergh, a quarter-finalist who fell to Rob Cross in 2018, stopped the rot to claim the third set as his opponent began to flag, and while Lewis maintained his two-set advantage by claiming an edgy fourth, it proved the catalyst for the Dreammaker to battle back from the brink.
Having pulled himself back into it by claiming the fifth set, Van den Bergh produced a spectacular set of darts to average 107 on his way to the sixth set and a level contest where Van den Bergh was calmness personified to claim a memorable victory - before letting his emotions spill out in his post-match interview.
Luke Humphries won the world youth title last month and produced a clinical display to end the hopes of Kim Huybrechts. who had sent 2018 champion Rob Cross packing earlier in the tournament.
'Cool Hand' was a surprise quarter-finalist last year before falling foul of eventual runner-up Michael Smith; and once again, the big stage proved to be his inspiration, as he matched that feat with a 4-1 win.
Huybrechts had claimed the opening stanza, before a change of board prompted a change in fortunes. Humphries began to go through the gears, first levelling and then taking a 2-1 lead. The match hinged on a pivotal moment in the deciding fifth leg of the third when Belgium's Huybrechts, left with 83, turned down a dart at bullseye to claim the leg.
It proved costly as Humphries took out 146 and went on thanks to a pair of treble 19s and a nerveless double 16 to claim the set.
Huybrechts claimed only one of the next seven legs as Humphries swept to the finish line and a date with either Peter Wright or Jeffrey de Zwaan; keeping alive hopes of becoming the first man to hold both the world youth title and the world championship.
1996 BDO world champion Steve Beaton saw his hopes of a first PDC World Championship quarter-final scuppered by Darius Labanauskas, who became the first Lithuanian to reach the last eight of the tournament with a 4-2 win.
Beaton was playing catch-up throughout having seen Labanauskas, a former BDO World Championship quarter-finalist, claim the first and third sets, but any hopes of a revival from the Bronzed Adonis were scuppered as he faltered down the stretch.
That wasn't the case for Lucky D, who knocked out Raymond van Barneveld last year and had broken into the world's top 64 on the back of his run to the last 16 - but it's now the last eight and Michael van Gerwen for the 43-year-old.
Coverage of the World Darts Championship continues on Sunday with the last double session of the year featuring all four quarter-finals. Joins us from 12.30pm on Sky Sports Darts and then again from 7pm
