Gary Anderson advanced to the last 16 of the World Darts Championship after beating Jermaine Wattimena in a seven-set thriller at Alexandra Palace.
Anderson missed a nine-dart attempt but eventually beat Wattimena 4-3 in the third round and won the deciding set 5-3 in the legs.
The 2015 and 2016 world champion has averaged highs of 102.24, 14,180 and high checkouts of 124 and is likely to tie with Michael van Gerwen in his next match.
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Highlights of Anderson and Wattimena’s dramatic final set…
‘The Flying Scotsman’ Anderson defied Wattimena’s three maximums to win the first set 3-1 in 5 minutes 23 seconds, with the Dutchman hitting 10 darts to double.
Wattimena finished the second stanza without a reply to restore parity and Anderson brought out the heavy artillery and sealed the next stanza with an incredible 121.28 average.
‘The Machine Gun’ missed two set darts in the deciding stretch of the fourth set, allowing Anderson to move to two clear.
The 55-year-old missed three match darts before Wattimena took the lead in the fifth set at 87 and saved his life.
In a topsy-turvy clash, Wattimena survived the fourth dart of the match to make it to the seventh and final set.
Down 3-3 in the tiebreak, Anderson missed double 12 in his nine dart attempt, then missed his fifth dart for double in game eight, eventually scoring double 1 to secure a famous victory.
“Not good for my age. I was up 3-1 and missed a double dart and then Jermaine rolled over,” Anderson said. sky sports. “It’s difficult, but it’s a really good game.
“The last two games were boring. I’m going to go and lie down now. I bottled up my nine-dart attempt. I was excited and I don’t get excited very often.”
‘A truly fiery performance – Anderson did too much’
Sky Sports Darts’ Laura Turner:
“You just have to take a breather after that. Wow, what a great game to end the session with.
“It looked like Gary Anderson would win 4-1 but he missed a match dart. It looked like he would win 4-2 but Jermaine Wattimena had other ideas.
“It was one of those games where we were really on fire and it didn’t disappoint.
“I’m really happy for Gary. It was obviously disappointing for Jermaine. Jermaine showed a lot of courage and spirit and fight there, but in the end Gary showed too much.”
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rob crossThe 2018 world champion won the opening set 3-1 against Damon Heta at an average of 101.3 and 3/5 in doubles before Heta put on a horror show in doubles, wasting five darts to take the second set and ‘Voltage’ doubled his advantage by giving the Australian a 23-dart break.
Rob Cross faces world number one Luke Littler in the round of 16.
Another set of darts got past Heta next and Cross got out 220 for four darts to extend the cushion and the 35-year-old soon set up a showdown with the defending champions with a crushing 4-0 win. Luke Littler.
Ahead of the next ‘The Nuke’, Cross said: “Luke Littler is the best player in the world at the moment for a reason. I think he’s always been able to dream because he’s always been so good.
“Don’t worry, I’ll play darts. Who knows, I might just get a little magic out of myself.”
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Cross shared his thoughts on the match against Littler after his 4-0 win over Damon Heta.
Can Cross stop Littler?
Laura Turner speaking sky sports“Kross will know what to expect, Luke Littler set up his marker on Saturday night (against Mensur Suljovic).
“The question from the beginning was: ‘Who can stop him?’ Rob Cross will do very well.”
Ryan Searle is yet to drop a set after reaching the round of 16 at Ally Pally.
Ryan Sully He took nine legs off the spin to powerfully overpower German number one Martin Schindler and entered the last 16 with an average of 102.3.
The Devon-born arrowmaker put on a heavy metal performance with six maximums and a high checkout of 151 in a determined display to prepare for his encounter with Stephen Bunting’s conqueror. James Hurrell.
“I’ve been playing well in practice and now it’s time to get on stage,” the 38-year-old said. “I feel fine today. I didn’t feel anything special. I have more to give.
“There’s still a lot left. It’s hard to stand here in front of the fans because it’s noisy. It’s not an easy place to play darts properly.”
“Now I’m looking forward to the next game. I changed my darts and it’s going really well.
“I feel like there are no limits to these new darts. Normally it takes 3-4 weeks to get used to a new set, but I felt better right away.
“I’m a danger to anyone if I can stage what I actually hit.”
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Searle produced two brilliant big finishes with 151 points and a classy Tops-tops 100 as he defeated Martin Schindler 4-0.
Searle looked ‘really impressive’.
John Part on Sky Sports Darts:
“Searle was as powerful as if Schindler wasn’t there! This kind of performance is something else. It’s Searle’s highest average at Alexandra Palace.
“He never looked back and kept winning. That was really, really impressive.”
What’s happening at Ally Pally on Sunday nights?
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Wayne Mardle and Glen Durrant discuss who can stop Littler or Luke Humphries from reaching the final.
The third round of action continues with former world champions Luke Humphries and Michael van Gerwen headlining matches against German stars Gabriel Clemens and Arno Merk respectively.
European champion Gian van Veen also returns to the big stage with a meeting with Latvian No.1 Madars Razma.
Who will win the Paddy Power World Darts Championship? Watch every match live exclusively until January 3 on Sky Sports’ dedicated darts channel (Sky Channel 407). Stream darts and other top sports with NOW.
