The Seventh night of PDC World Championship action from London’s Alexandra Palace saw victories for three mainland European stars amongst an action-packed day of first and second-round clashes:
Gabriel Clemens impressed in a 3-0 rout of William O‘Connor to reach the third round for a third successive year.
In a game widely-billed as a ’50-50′ tie, Clemens took the deciding legs of the opening two sets to take a commanding lead.
The German pressed home the advantage in the third, winning it without reply to book his place in round three – where James Wade or Jim Williams awaits after Christmas.
Lithuania’s Darius Labanauskas fought back from 2-0 down to defeat John O’Shea 3-2 in Wednesday’s opening tie at Alexandra Palace.
Former quarter-finalist Labanauskas, who hit a nine-darter in last year’s event, lost the deciding legs of the opening two sets to trail 2-0 to Irish debutant O’Shea but battled back in style to progress to a second round tie with European Champion Ross Smith.
Martijn Kleermaker enjoyed straightforward progression with a 3-0 victory over Xicheng Han in the final tie of the first round.
Kleermaker, who reached the last 16 of last year’s event, made light work of Chinese debutant Han, dropping just two legs on his way to a comfortable victory.
Thursday will see a double session of second round action take place, as Dirk van Duijvenbode begins his campaign against Karel Sedlacek in the afternoon.
The evening session will see two-time World Champion Gary Anderson take on Madars Razma, with James Wade and Luke Humphries also among the players in action.
The Cazoo World Darts Championship is being broadcast live on Sky Sports in the UK & Ireland, through the PDC’s worldwide broadcast partners including DAZN and Viaplay, and on PDCTV (excluding UK, Ireland, Germany, Austria & Switzerland based subscribers).
Click here for match stats and results.
2022/23 Cazoo World Darts Championship
Wednesday December 21
Afternoon Session
2x First Round, 2x Second Round
Darius Labanauskas 3-2 John O’Shea (2-3, 2-3, 3-1, 3-2, 3-1) (R1)
Martijn Kleermaker 3-0 Xicheng Han (3-0, 3-1, 3-1) (R1)
Josh Rock 3-0 Callan Rydz (3-2, 3-1, 3-1) (R2)
Dave Chisnall 3-1 Andrew Gilding (0-3, 3-0, 3-2, 3-2) (R2)
Evening Session
4x Second Round
Mervyn King 3-2 Danny Baggish (3-2, 3-2, 2-3, 2-3, 3-1) (R2)
Gabriel Clemens 3-0 William O‘Connor (3-2, 3-2, 3-0) (R2)
Michael van Gerwen 3-0 Lewy Williams (3-1, 3-0, 3-0) (R2)
Stephen Bunting 3-1 Leonard Gates (2-3, 3-1, 3-1, 3-1) (R2)
Thursday December 22
Afternoon Session (1230 GMT)
4x Second Round
Krzysztof Ratajski v Danny Jansen (R2)
Ryan Searle v Adam Gawlas (R2)
Mensur Suljovic v Mike De Decker (R2)
Dirk van Duijvenbode v Karel Sedlacek (R2)
Evening Session (1900 GMT)
4x Second Round
Gary Anderson v Madars Razma (R2)
James Wade v Jim Williams (R2)
Luke Humphries v Florian Hempel (R2)
Vincent van der Voort v Cameron Menzies (R2)
All second round matches best of five sets
—-ENDS—-
