A nervous Nathan Aspinall stumbled in his World Darts Championship opener, edging past Leonard Gates on the same night Christian Kist defeated nine darts.
Aspinall, who suffered a shock defeat at the same stage last year, narrowly avoided an upset this time around, recording their post-Christmas breakthrough with a 3-1 win.
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Watch Nathan Aspinall’s 3-1 win over Leonard Gates in their World Darts Championship second round match.
Gates, who beat a tearful Cameron Menzies in his first-round match on Monday, was eyeing a shared opener for two sets before Aspinall eventually broke clear.
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Check out the best action from night four of the World Darts Championship.
The American posted a 106 for the first set break, only for Aspinall to go one better in the next leg with a 114 to grab the opener.
But the 12th seed was desperately losing the second set, averaging less than 80. Despite such a fight, he would be two darts up in two sets, but would hit his lines as Gates leveled things up instead.
Aspinall improved marginally from the last two sets but endured some nervy moments along the way, including being denied several darts as Gates threatened to force a deciding set.
The two-time semi-finalist will know he has to play much better if he wants to make another deep run at Alexandra Palace.
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Who had a better walk between Aspinall and Gates before the second round of the World Darts Championship?
Kist makes an astonishing nine balls but loses
Kist’s nine was his 15th in the World and the first since Michael Smith’s famous ‘I can’t talk’ perfect leg in the 2023 final.
The Dutchman, however, was unable to bounce back from his incredible moment to win the first set as a challenger. Madar Razma kept his cool and won the next three sets in style to take a match against Dirk van Duyvenbode.
Kist won £60,000 for his nine darts, however, as did one lucky fan in the Ally Pally crowd, where tournament sponsor Paddy Power also donated £60,000 to prostate cancer to mark the occasion.
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Rapid’s Ricky Evans wins 3-2 against Gordon Mathers in the first round of the World Darts Championship.
Ricky Evans was far from his “quick” best when he was made to work hard in his opening match against Gordon Mathers, forced into a final set decider.
Evans finally got the win, setting up a second-round clash with sixth-seeded Dave Chisnall when he fired 109 in what was an excellent first-ton finish to an otherwise lackluster match.
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Evans brings the crowd to a rendition of “Merry Christmas Everyone” for a very festive ride.
In the opening match of the night, a downed Jim Williams missed five darts as he lost 3-2 in his first round match. Paolo Nebrida.
Making matters worse for the Welshman, he also missed three darts to take the opening set en route to Ross Smith awaiting Nebrida in the next round.
What’s next?
Thursday 19th December is the next day’s action as it returns to the afternoon session, live on Sky Sports Darts from 12.30pm; the composition is as follows. Kumar and 27th seed Gabriel Clemens in their second round clash against Robert Owen.
Live from 7pm, former world champion Michael Smith headlines the evening session, 2023 champion and runner-up Kevin Doets rounding off the night, while three previous round matches include Nick Kenny vs Stow Buntz, Mensur Suljovic vs Matt Campbell and last year’s semi-finalist Scott Williams vs. Nico Springer.
Who will win the Paddy Power World Darts Championship Watch every match exclusively live until January 3rd on Sky Sports’ special darts channel. Stream darts and better sports with NOW!.
