World Darts Championship: Michael van Gerwen races into third round as Stephen Bunting also wins
Michael van Gerwen booked his place in the next round as he whitewashed James Hurrell; watch the seventh day of the World Championship at 12.30pm, with a star-studded evening session from 7pm including Raymond van Barneveld and Luke Littler
Saturday 21 December 2024 01:21, UK
Michael van Gerwen raced into the third round of the World Darts Championship as he beat James Hurrell 3-0 on Friday.
Van Gerwen, who comes into the World Championship having not won a televised tournament all year for the first time since 2011, was under control throughout the match and showed glimpses of his best form.
The 35-year-old will play Northern Ireland's Brendan Dolan or Hong Kong's Lok Yin Lee after Christmas.
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"I think I played okay," Van Gerwen told Sky Sports.
"Of course I was nervous. As everyone knows it has been a tough year for me. So to stand up here and do the thing you want to do always costs a lot of energy.
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"Overall I think I put in a good performance. My doubles were there. I was confident. That's important, but the most important thing is I won the game. That's the only thing that counts at the moment."
Hurrell started the match well with a 13-dart leg but after that it was one-way traffic for Van Gerwen, who won the next three legs to win the set with a 'Shanghai' 120 checkout.
Van Gerwen did not come under any serious pressure for the remainder of the match, winning each set 3-1 to secure a place in the last 32.
The evening's first-round matches saw Germany's Florian Hempel maintain his 100 per cent record of winning his first-round match at the World Championship with a 3-1 win over Jeffrey de Zwaan of the Netherlands.
Mickey Mansell won a scrappy contest by the same scoreline against Japan's Tomoya Goto. Mansell was far from his best but did enough to set up a clash with Wales' Jonny Clayton on Monday.
The second ever all-Irish match at the World Championship went the way of Dylan Slevin as he got the better of veteran William O'Connor 3-1.
O'Connor had the crowd on his side with his classic darts walk-on song of Zombie but was largely outshone by his younger compatriot.
Bunting delights crowd as Nijman survives scare
In the afternoon session, fan favourite Stephen Bunting came back from a set down to beat Kai Gotthardt in the second round of the World Darts Championship.
After delighting the Ally Pally crowd, which included Ed Sheeran and Roman Kemp, with his Titanium walk-on, Bunting was served a rude awakening by Gotthardt as he broke 'The Bullet's' throw to take the opening set.
Gotthardt did not let up in the second set either but after taking Bunting to a deciding leg, he missed three darts at D8 and opened the door for Bunting to take out D10 to level the game at 1-1. From there, Bunting romped his way to a relatively comfortable victory.
Wessel Nijman survived a massive scare against Cameron Carolissen to clinch a 3-2 win in a deciding leg, throwing his dart into the floor and roaring in celebration.
Favoured as a dark horse by many in this tournament, Nijman came out firing and whitewashed the first set with a 139 checkout, staying calm under pressure to wrap up the second set for a 2-0 lead.
However, Carolissen put on an almighty comeback to take all three legs in the third set and he ground out the fourth to bring the encounter to 2-2, a 95 average helping the South African to wrestle some momentum.
With the pair locked in a tense deciding set, the match went all the way to a last-leg decider and with the pressure on, Nijman nailed D8 to set up a second-round showdown with Joe Cullen.
Alexander Merkx set up a second-round contest with world No 16 Chris Dobey after a comprehensive 3-0 victory against Stephen Burton.
Meanwhile, Sandro Eric Sosing withdrew from his match with Ian White after suffering with chest pains and being treated by medics at Alexandra Palace.
The withdrawal means White is through to the second round and will play Ritchie Edhouse in the second round.
What's next at the World Darts Championship?
On Saturday December 21, Luke Littler is in action in the evening session, which takes place from 7pm on Sky Sports. He will face Ryan Meikle in the third match of the night, with Danny Noppert vs Ryan Joyce, Raymond van Barneveld vs Nick Kenny and Damon Heta vs Connor Scutt completing the evening.
Prior to that, we have an afternoon session from 12:30pm, also on Sky Sports, with Karel Sedlacek up against Rhys Griffin, Richard Veenstra playing Alexis Toylo, Brendan Dolan facing Lok-Yin Lee and Chris Dobey vs Alexander Merkx.
Who will win the Paddy Power World Darts Championship? Watch every match exclusively live until January 3 on Sky Sports' dedicated darts channel. Stream darts and more top sport with NOW.
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