Gerwyn Price has lost his world title. In a thrilling and high-quality match, the Welshman threw a nine-darter, but had to acknowledge his superiority in Michael Smith after nine long sets. He struck at the perfect moment and thus made his way to the semi-finals at the World Darts Championship for the second time in his career: 5-4. “Everything is gone, but this feels so good.”
When the four quarter-finals were announced before the turn of the year, the match between reigning world champion Gerwyn Price and Michael Smith was particularly looking forward to. The latter already eliminated Jonny Clayton in the eighth finals and wanted to tie a Welshman to the victory cart tonight. Price in turn easily defeated Dirk van Duijvenbode in the previous round and hoped these days to join an elite club of only three darters who have successfully defended their world title at the PDC.
Immediately the The Iceman and bully boy the high expectations. Everything went according to plan in the first set. Price managed to pull him in with an average of almost 110, compared to more than 106 of his English opponent. That one came out of the first intermission the best. Quite effortlessly Smith made it 1-1.
The level then remained undiminished. Price opened the third set with a 125 finish, but it was Smith who struck first in his opponent’s leg. Price, however, forced the re-break with a 130-finish, and then also took the decisive fifth leg: 2-1.
In the beginning of the fourth set, Price then provided one of the major highlights of this World Cup darts. After William Borland and Darius Labanauskas succeeded more than two weeks ago, now The Iceman a nine-darter. Via triple 19, triple 20 and double 12 he turned London’s Alexandra Palace upside down, but that ‘perfect leg’ did not help him in the fourth set. In the end it was ‘normal’ again for Smith.
It was striking that both men did not manage to steal a set started by the opponent. The next four sets also went to the player who started it and it became 4-4, after Price had already missed two darts before the match in the eighth set. The Welshman was squatted, partly because someone from the audience was harassing him. That didn’t take away from the performance of Smith, who came up with a 126 finish at an extremely important moment and won the race moments later.
,,I feel sick,’ said an exhausted Smith, who once again warned the competition with an average of 101.94, after the camera of RTL 7. “Everything comes to me now. Everything went well on the practice board, but in his sets I wasn’t playing consistently at all. I can barely talk now, I’ve dragged my ass over the line… My head is in the right place right now and behind every dart I throw is confidence. Everything is gone, but this feels so good.”
So we have the two semi-finals for tomorrow night: one between two Englishmen and one between two Scots. Smith, who already lost finalist against Michael van Gerwen in 2019, may compete against James Wade, the other semi-final is between Peter Wright and Gary Anderson.
Results evening session
Quarter-finals (best of 9 sets)
• Peter Wright – Callan Rydz 5-4
• Gerwyn Price – Michael Smith 4-5
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