Defending champion Gerwyn Price was eliminated in the quarter-finals of the Darts World Cup in London’s Alexandra Palace – despite a sensational new dart in the fourth set.
The top seeded Welshman lost 4: 5 in a high-class match to Englishman Michael Smith, who will meet his compatriot James Wade in the semifinals on Sunday.
Price and Smith gave each other nothing from the start, both shone with a high point average and were also confident on the double fields. In the fourth set, Price ecstatic “Ally Pally” when he checked nine perfect darts over double-12. Smith turned up in the decisive set and used his third match dart to win.
“This is one of the best nights of my career. I just kept my focus, that’s the reward for the last few years,” said Smith, who had already had two Matcb darts for the Welshman when Price was 3: 4 .
Previously, ex-world champion Peter Wright had made it to the semi-finals with great difficulty. After a thriller, the Scot won 5: 4 against the young Englishman Callan Rydz and met compatriot Gary Anderson in the round of the last four.
Wright, number two on the seeding list, came into the game poorly against 23-year-old Rydz and had big problems, especially when checking out the double fields. After 0: 2 and 1: 3 deficit, the 2020 world champion improved and won the decisive leg 4: 2.
In the afternoon session, Anderson had fewer problems. The Scot defeated the Englishman Luke Humphries 5-2 and is in the semifinals at the World Cup for the seventh time in his career.
Anderson, who won the title in 2015 and 2016 and was left behind in the final against Price last year, fought his way into the match after a weak first set and ended up with a solid average of 96.32.
The first player was the Englishman Wade, number four on the seeding list, through a safe 5-0 over compatriot Mervyn in the semifinals.
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