The quarter-final line-up at the PDC World Darts Championship will be confirmed after today’s proceedings at the Alexandra Palace.
There are six matches to look forward to for darts fans today after some sensational encounters last night got the fourth-round off to a flying start.
The first Round 4 match of this year’s event was a nail-biting showdown between German number one Gabriel Clemens and the 15th seed, Poland’s Krzysztof Ratajski. It was a tight affair throughout with the game going to a seventh and final set to decide the winner. Both players held their throw in the final set to leave the game on a knife-edge at 2-2. It is not necessary to win by two clear legs at this year’s tournament so Ratajski only needed to hold his throw again to seal victory. It turned out to be far more dramatic than expected for both players. The Polish number one missed nine match darts and Clemens failed to convert seven of his own to complete the game in bizzare fashion. Ratajski held his nerve at the tenth attempt however, taking out double one to seal a dramatic victory and become the first player from Poland to make the quarter-finals of darts showpiece event.
Ratajski and Clemens turned out to merely be the appetiser on an amazing night of darts. 16th seed Joe Cullen’s best performance of his career to date was not enough to defeat three-time world champion Michael Van Gerwen in one of the greatest games to be played on the Alexandra Palace stage. The game followed a similar pattern to the first Round 4 match, with the number one seed Van Gerwen battling back from 3-1 behind to level the tie at 3-3 and once again send the game into a seventh set. The final set entered into a deciding leg with the winner advancing to the next round. Despite hitting a record-equalling 19 180s throughout the match, Cullen crucially failed to hit a big treble in his first throw of the leg. Van Gerwen duly punished the English man with an incredible 180 to take control of the last leg. The Dutch man didn’t let up and punished Cullen for not getting down to any sort of a finish by taking out double eight and booking his place in the quarter-finals yet again.
If today’s matches are anything like the first two last 16 ties played last night, everyone will be glued to their television for another epic day of darts. The final six Round 4 matches will be played today with three in the afternoon session and the remaining three in the evening session to be played in North London tonight.
Here are the six Round 4 matches to be played at the PDC World Darts Championship today.
Afternoon session-12pm
Vincent van der Voort v Daryl Gurney
Stephen Bunting v Ryan Searle
Devon Petersen v Gary Anderson
Evening session-6pm
Dirk van Duijvenbode v Glen Durrant
Gerwyn Price v Mervyn King
Dave Chisnall v Dimitri Van den Bergh