World Championship - A thumping for darts world champion - Van Gerwen masters test
World darts champion Michael Smith has to retire early from his title defense and will also lose his status as number one in the world. The Englishman, nicknamed Bully Boy, suffered a 4-0 defeat against his compatriot Chris Dobey in London.
AlthoughSmith played at a decent level in the World Championship round of 16, he was unable to match Dobey's enormous level. The new number one after the World Championship will therefore be either Michael van Gerwen (Netherlands) or Luke Humphries (England).
Earlier, van Gerwen had brilliantly mastered the first big test of the tournament. The Dutchman, nicknamed Mighty Mike, won his first round of 16 match against England's Stephen Bunting 4:0. Bunting had been the most confident player in the tournament so far and had won 4:0 against Germany's Florian Hempel the day before after an excellent performance.
Against van Gerwen he was quickly confronted with a deficit, the differences became clear over the distance. The 3000 enthusiastic fans in the Alexandra Palace cheered euphorically and with their mouths wide open after van Gerwen had converted his match dart.
Both professionals had won seven out of seven sets at the World Championship before the match. Van Gerwen now underlined his top form. A possible semi-final against England's top favorite Humphries, which is regarded as an anticipated final, is taking on ever more concrete form. Cool Hand Luke had just averted an early exit on Thursday evening. He turned around a 1:3 deficit against Ricardo Pietreczko to win 4:3.
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Source: www.stern.de
