Gabriel Clemens made history on the tenth day of the 2021 PDC World Darts Championship. The “German Giant” is the first German player to reach the last 16 of the PDC World Championship after his 4:3 win over reigning World Champion Peter Wright.
The very first leg of the match went to Clemens who nevertheless had to give away the first set to Wright. In the second set Clemens managed to level the game. Both players played an average of over 100 points at this point.
After the second break Gabriel Clemens took this momentum directly and won the third set as well. At this point Peter Wright played too inconsistent and missed too many opportunities.
Also in the fourth set Clemens already led 2:0 in the legs but missed his chances in the fourth leg to go 3:1 up.
“Snakebite” then lifted his game a little and won three legs in a row to level the match again.
In the fifth set it was the other way around: Wright was already leading 2:0 in the legs, but Clemens showed his comeback qualities as well this evening and secured the fifth set with high finishes of 144 and 126 points.
With a clear 3:0 in the sixth set “Snakebite” managed to equalise again so that the match went into the deciding seventh set and finally also into the deciding last leg. Here Clemens managed to hold his throw and to claim the victory.
“I don’t know what to say. I am incredibly proud of myself and my performance,” said a speechless Gabriel Clemens after the match. “Peter is such a great player and person. He missed a lot of chances today, normally he should have won the match. I am the luckier one tonight,” said Clemens, who will now face Poland’s Krzysztof Ratajski in the round of the last 16.
In the last match of the evening Michael van Gerwen won 4:0 against Ricky Evans, one of the fastest throwers on the circuit. Michael van Gerwen showed a great performance, averaged 106 points and hit 57% of his doubles. Evans also played close to 100 points in the average and – despite the clear result – didn’t really make many mistakes.
“You can’t afford any slip-ups at this level, you saw that today with Peter Wright. I expected a good game from Ricky and I gave a good performance,” van Gerwen said afterwards.
In the first match of the evening Joe Cullen defeated Welshman Jonny Clayton 4:3. This match also went into the deciding last leg which Joe Cullen finished with a 100 finish over tops-tops.
Cullen was already 2:0 in front before Clayton turned the match around. In the end Cullen showed extremely strong nerves and reached the Wm last 16 for the first time in his career.
“It’s always tough to play against a good friend,” admitted Cullen after the win. “After the second set, I wanted to cheer Jonny up at first, but then I thought to myself, I have to win the match” the “Rockstar” said with a smile. “There was so much pressure on the 100 at the end because Jonny was waiting on 40 points to close it out. It’s incredibly hard to finish a leg in situations like that,” said Cullen, who will meet Michael van Gerwen in the last 16.
The afternoon session of the tenth day of the 2021 World Darts Championship 2021 was opened by Krzysztof Ratajski and Simon Whitlock. Here Ratajski could prevail clearly 4:0 but profited from the enormous double problems of his opponent.
The match was actually not that good, Ratajski said in the interview after the match. Whitlock was not really worse in scoring but could not keep up his good form of the last weeks in finishing.
Dimitri van den Bergh secured a 4:0 win as well. His opponent Jermaine Wattimena failed to take his chances at the beginning of the match to get himself into more control of the game.
In the second match of the afternoon Ryan Searle won against Kim Huybrechts who showed a lot of fight but couldn’t keep up the form of the first two rounds. In the end Sealre deserved to win 4:2 in the sets.
Tomorrow the 2021 World Darts Championship continues with its eleventh day. Among others Gerwyn Price, Glen Durrant and Gary Anderson will take part in their third round matches tomorrow.
Sky Sports, Sport1, DAZN and RTL7 will broadcast live from 1pm and 7pm respectively.
The results:
William Hill World Darts Championship 2021
Sunday, 27 December 2020
3x Round 3, Best of 7 Sets
Afternoon session
Krzysztof Ratajski 4:0 Simon Whitlock
Ryan Searle 4:2 Kim Huybrechts
Dimitri van den Bergh 4:0 Jermaine Wattimena
William Hill World Darts Championship 2021
Sunday, 27 December 2020
3x Round 3, Best of 7 Sets
Evening session
Joe Cullen 4:3 Jonny Clayton
Peter Wright 3:4 Gabriel Clemens
Michael van Gerwen 4:0 Ricky Evans
William Hill World Darts Championship 2021
Monday, 28 December 2020 (1pm).
3x Round 3, Best of 7 Sets
Afternoon session
Jose de Sousa – Mervyn King
Dirk van Duijvenbode – Adam Hunt
Nathan Aspinall – Vincent van der Voort
William Hill World Darts Championship 2021
Monday, 28 December 2020 (7pm).
3x Round 3, Best of 7 Sets
Evening session
Gary Anderson – Mensur Suljovic
Gerwyn Price – Brendan Dolan
Glen Durrant – Danny Baggish
