Humphries survives scare to progress with Van Gerwen

7 hours ago 4

Luke Humphries celebrates his victory over Gabriel Clemens

ByCallum Matthews

BBC Sport senior journalist

Former champion Luke Humphries survived a scare to progress to the fourth round of the PDC World Championship as four previous winners won on Sunday.

Humphries, who beat Luke Littler to win the 2024 title, saw off Germany's Gabriel Clemens 4-2.

The 30-year-old raced into a 3-0 lead but was pegged back to 3-2 and Clemens missed darts to level before Humphries set up a fourth-round tie against Nathan Aspinall or Kevin Doets.

Three-time winner Michael van Gerwen also progressed with a 4-1 win over German debutant Arno Merk.

He led 2-0 before being pegged back but found another gear to set up a last-16 tie with two-time winner Gary Anderson.

Anderson won a final-set thriller against Jermaine Wattimena in the afternoon to progress alongside 2018 winner Rob Cross.

Cross brushed aside Australian 16th seed Damon Heta in a comfortable 4-0 win and will face defending champion Luke Littler in the next round.

The Netherlands' 10th seed Gian van Veen also progressed after seeing off Latvia's Madars Razma with a 4-1 victory, while 20th seed Ryan Searle reached the fourth round for the first time since 2021 with a 4-0 demolition of Germany's Martin Schindler.

'Could be the difference between being world champion again or not'

England's Luke Humphries celebrates defeating Germany's Gabriel Clemens on day fifteen of the Paddy Power World Darts Championship at the Alexandra Palace, London

Humphries won the first set against Clemens despite averaging just 89.82, but was more purposeful in going 2-0 up with a second-set average of 108.59.

He also claimed the third set but the signs of Clemens sparking into life were there.

The German reached the semi-finals in 2023 but had failed to progress past round three in the past two years.

He won the fourth set without dropping a leg, and took out 121 and 116 finishes.

Clemens also claimed set five and at this stage he was on a roll, winning eight of 11 legs across sets three to five.

This was not a case of Humphries' level dropping - he took out 170 in set five and averaged 103.25 and 110.25 in the two that Clemens won.

Clemens had three darts at double 20 to earn a deciding set but went inside on 20 and 10 before going high on the double five.

Humphries needed 81 to secure his passage and, after nailing double 13 with his final dart, wheeled off in celebration and jumped around the stage fist-pumping in a rare showing of emotion and relief for the world number two.

"I don't think I really dropped off but Gabriel got a lot better," Humphries, who averaged 100.14 to Clemens' 101.49, told Sky Sports.

"If that double 13 doesn't go in, it is 3-3 and I'm panicking.

"That could be the difference between being world champion again or not.

"I just found another level there when I needed it."

Anderson edges Wattimena in thriller

Gary Anderson celebrates beating Jermaine Wattimena in the PDC World Championship

The tie between Scotland's Anderson and Dutchman Wattimena was undoubtedly the headline act of the afternoon.

Anderson went 3-1 up in a game played at a ferocious pace, and was impressive in averaging 121 in set three.

He missed three match darts in the fifth set, hitting double eight with his first dart with 32 required, before missing the same target twice.

Wattimena powered back and forced a final set, despite Anderson missing more match darts at tops in set six.

Anderson went eight darts into the nine-darter in the final set, before going high on the double 12, and eventually claimed the set 5-3 to continue his quest to be the tournament's oldest winner at 55.

He averaged 102.24 - the eighth-highest average in this year's tournament - and was at 37.5% on the checkouts.

"It's no good for my age. It's hard, especially with Jermaine on you. What a game," Anderson told Sky Sports.

"The last two games, 4-0, 4-0. I hope that's made up for it. I'm going to lie down now.

"I bottled the nine-darter, like I bottled a lot of doubles. I was getting excited, I don't often do that up there. But I got it done."