Nathan Aspinall survived a match dart before winning the final two sets to complete a dramatic victory over Joe Murnan at the William Hill World Championship on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Day Eight of the \u00a32.5m tournament saw eight further players book their places in the third round, with Joe Cullen and Dirk van Duijvenbode among the other winners at London’s Alexandra Palace.<\/p>\n
World number ten Aspinall battled through the pain barrier to progress, refusing to let an arm injury stop him getting the better of Murnan in a five-set thriller.<\/p>\n
The world number ten was punished for missing three darts to win the opening set, which Murnan clinched in a decider.<\/p>\n
Aspinall hit back to take the second set 3-1 with the help of an enormous 145 finish, only for Murnan to win set three by the same margin.<\/p>\n
The Bolton thrower then opened up a two leg lead in the fourth set to move to the brink of victory but missed a dart at tops in leg four and was made to pay as Aspinall forced a deciding set, which he sealed 3-1 with a neat 80 checkout. <\/p>\n
\u201cJoe put me under a lot of pressure so I\u2019m so relieved to win that match,\u201d said two-time Ally Pally semi-finalist Aspinall.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been struggling with tendonitis and tennis elbow but it was never going to stop me playing. I love this tournament, especially the crowd. They were so good tonight. They helped to get me through that. <\/p>\n
\u201cJoe is a fantastic player – he\u2019s beaten me a couple of times on tour this year so I knew I was in for a tough game.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not happy with how I played but I\u2019ve got the win and that\u2019s the most important thing.\u201d <\/p>\n
Cullen overcame Jim Williams in another exciting five-set battle to reach the last 32 of the World Championship for just the third time in his 12 appearances in the sport’s showpiece event.<\/p>\n
Williams aced the opening set, taking three straight legs with an average of 100 before his opponent hit back with three unanswered legs to level the contest.<\/p>\n
The Welshman regained the advantage by winning the third set 3-1, sealing it with a 119 checkout, only for Cullen to claim the fourth set 3-0 to force a decider.<\/p>\n
There, the Yorkshireman held his nerve to taste victory in front of fans at Ally Pally for the first time since 2017 as he landed double four to seal the fifth set 3-1.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo have the crowd behind me is great and I\u2019m just happy to win to be honest,\u201d said Cullen. <\/p>\n
“Jim played well to get in front and I did well to come back. My record here is terrible so to play that well and to win in front of that brilliant crowd means everything to me.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was all about getting through until after Christmas and I\u2019ll take it from there. Jim Williams was a tough draw for me but I got through it.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I\u2019m honest I think I might have lost that game a few years ago but I\u2019m a little more experienced now and a little more comfortable and that\u2019s why I came back to win.\u201d <\/p>\n
Dirk van Duijvenbode won a dramatic duel with Boris Koltsov in a fifth set tie-break to go through to round three.<\/p>\n
The explosive Dutchman recovered a 2-1 deficit in a feisty affair, which saw the players miss a combined total of 64 darts at a double.<\/p>\n
Russian number one Koltsov looked to be on course to victory when he won the third set 3-1, but Van Duijvenbode managed to force a decider, which went to a tie-break when the score reached 2-2.<\/p>\n
Van Duijvenbode held himself together and took out 70 to move to the brink of glory before landing double 19 to wrap up the win.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt felt a little bit flat but I never thought I was going to lose that match,\u201d said Van Duijvenbode. <\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t play well for long spells of the match but when I needed it, it was there. I\u2019m not happy with the way I played but I am happy with the way I battled.<\/p>\n
\u201cI still won and there were some good things in that game.\u201d<\/p>\n
Martijn Kleemaker continued his dream World Championship debut with a 3-1 defeat of former finalist Simon Whitlock.<\/p>\n
The Dutchman, who had to withdraw from last year\u2019s event after testing positive for Covid-19, will face Cullen in the last 32 after an emphatic win over the 20th seed. <\/p>\n
The first two sets were shared before a fabulous 135 checkout kept Whitlock in the third, but that was to be as good as it got for the Australian as Kleermaker won the following four legs to complete victory. <\/p>\n
Kim Huybrechts kept Belgian hopes alive with a 3-1 success over Steve Beaton in a scrappy encounter.<\/p>\n
Just 24 hours after the shock departure of Belgian number one Dimitri Van den Bergh, Huybrechts recovered from losing the first set to advance to the third round.<\/p>\n
Beaton\u2019s 31st World Championship appearance came to an end when he missed a dart at double top to force a deciding set, allowing Huybrechts to pin double 18 to prevail. <\/p>\n
Rising star Ryan Searle eased to a straight sets victory, bringing nine-dart hero William Borland back down to earth following his epic first round win. <\/p>\n
Borland had delighted the crowd with a historic nine-darter in the deciding leg of his opening victory against Bradley Brooks, but struggled to get going against Searle, who raced through the first set without dropping a leg.<\/p>\n
The recent Players Championship Finals runner-up took each of the following two sets in deciding legs to wrap up a comfortable win to progress to the last 32. <\/p>\n
Luke Humphries was equally dominant in his second round success against Austria\u2019s Rowby-John Rodriguez. <\/p>\n
Two-time World Championship quarter-finalist Humphries was rarely troubled by Rodriguez, who failed to repeat his excellent first round performance over Nick Kenny.<\/p>\n
Humphries won three quickfire legs to take the opening set, before winning 3-1 in sets two and three to set up a mouth-watering third round tie with Dave Chisnall. <\/p>\n
William O\u2019Connor also enjoyed a 3-0 victory as Glen Durrant\u2019s struggles continued at Ally Pally.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Connor dropped just one leg against the former Premier League champion, who has endured a torrid time since that 2020 triumph.<\/p>\n
The Irish ace won the last eight legs of the match thanks to some excellent finishing, which began with the tournament\u2019s first 170 in the opening leg of the match. <\/p>\n
The second round concludes on Thursday with the final day of action before the three-day Christmas break. <\/p>\n
Portuguese ace Jose de Sousa get his campaign underway against Jason Lowe in the afternoon, before former World Champions Rob Cross and Raymond van Barneveld go head-to-head in the evening session. <\/p>\n
2021\/22 William Hill World Darts Championship Evening Session Thursday December 23 Evening Session (1900 GMT) Nathan Aspinall survived a match dart before winning the final two sets to complete a dramatic victory over Joe Murnan…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":4237,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[124],"tags":[],"lang":"en","translations":{"de":4239,"en":4236},"pll_sync_post":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pdc.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4236"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pdc.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pdc.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pdc.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pdc.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4236"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/pdc.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4236\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4242,"href":"https:\/\/pdc.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4236\/revisions\/4242"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pdc.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pdc.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pdc.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pdc.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nWednesday December 22
\nAfternoon Session
\n4x Second Round<\/strong>
\nRyan Searle 3-0 William Borland (3-0, 3-2, 3-2)
\nWilliam O\u2019Connor 3-0 Glen Durrant (3-1, 3-0, 3-0)
\nLuke Humphries 3-0 Rowby-John Rodriguez (3-0, 3-1, 3-1)
\nJoe Cullen 3-2 Jim Williams (0-3, 3-0, 1-3, 3-0, 3-1)<\/p>\n
\n4x Second Round<\/strong>
\nNathan Aspinall 3-2 Joe Murnan (2-3, 3-1, 1-3, 3-2, 3-1)
\nDirk van Duijvenbode 3-2 Boris Koltsov (3-2, 0-3, 1-3, 3-1, 4-2)
\nKim Huybrechts 3-1 Steve Beaton (1-3, 3-1, 3-1, 3-2)
\nMartijn Kleermaker 3-1 Simon Whitlock (3-2, 2-3, 3-1, 3-0)<\/p>\n
\nAfternoon Session (1230 GMT)
\n4x Second Round<\/strong>
\nDamon Heta v Luke Woodhouse
\nBrendan Dolan v Callan Rydz
\nMensur Suljovic v Alan Soutar
\nJose de Sousa v Jason Lowe<\/p>\n
\n4x Second Round<\/strong>
\nDanny Noppert v Jason Heaver
\nGabriel Clemens v Lewy Williams
\nRob Cross v Raymond van Barneveld
\nChris Dobey v Rusty-Jake Rodriguez<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"