You may recall that last week we brought you news of how the opening two rounds of action had gone at the 2023 PDC World Darts Championship, as well as a preview of Round 3.
Well, fast-forward a week, we are now at the critical juncture of the tournament – the semi-final stage.
So now is the perfect time to bring you the latest news on how the third, fourth and quarter final rounds of the tournament turned out, together with a look ahead to the two semifinals and potential final set to be played tomorrow (Tuesday 3rd January).
As always, the odds provided in this article come from bet365 Sport and while they were correct at the time of writing, they may well have changed in the run up to the start of the two semifinal games taking place today.
Let’s first begin with a catch up of how the action unfolded from the third round onwards.
With only three seeds not making it into the third round, there were a lot of familiar names remaining the tournament once it got back underway after the Christmas break, but it didn’t take too long before we had a couple of shocks in the third round of games.
The first day of action provided two of the biggest shocks of this round with Nathan Aspinall eliminated by the talented youngster Josh Rock but then after Gerwyn Price had demolished Raymond van Barneveld 4-0, Peter Wright was well beaten by a resurgent Kim Huybrechts 4-1, sending the current champion tumbling out of the tournament.
Alan Soutar and Chris Dobey provided surprise wins on the second day of Round 3 action knocking out Danny Noppert and Gary Anderson respectively but after that it was a case very much of the top seeds winning their games, apart from Stephen Bunting’s win over his St. Helen’s friend and rival Dave Chisnall.
The fourth round began with wins for two Welshman with Gerwyn Price defying the boos to beat Jose de Sousa, while Jonny Clayton edged out Josh Rock in a cracking game which saw the Welshman come from 3-2 down to win 4-3.
Dmitri Van den Bergh won the all-Belgian clash easily with a 4-0 whitewash of Kim Huybrechts before Gabriel Clemens became Germany’s first quarterfinalist with a comfortable 4-1 win over Alan Soutar.
Michael Smith’s great form continued with a 4-1 win over Joe Cullen but there was a shock in the next match as sixth seed Rob Cross surrendered a 2-1 lead to lose 4-2 to Chris Dobey.
Michael van Gerwen came out on top in the all-Dutch clash, beating Dirk van Duijvenbode 4-1 before Stephen Bunting’s great run at the tournament continued with a 4-1 win over the 5th seed Luke Humphries.
The first two quarterfinals were the best two games at this stage of the tournament with Dmitri Van den Bergh and Jonny Clayton fighting hard but with the Welshman leading 3-2, Van den Bergh rattled off three sets in a row to claim a 5-3 victory and his second appearance in a World’s semi final.
Michael Smith took command of his game with Stephen Bunting in the middle sets, going out to a 4-1 lead before Bunting won two sets in a row, but Smith then converted the eight set to land a 5-3 win.
The second two quarterfinal ties were big wins, but the first produced a huge shock when Gerwyn Price, wearing ear-defenders, won the first set against Gabriel Clemens 3-0, he looked set to dominate the game.
However, after that the Welshman won just four legs as Clemens rattled off five sets in a row for an incredible 5-1 victory.
After that game Price said that the crowd did not let him play his game and that he would likely not play in the World Championships again.
The final quarterfinal saw Michael van Gerwen whitewash Chris Dobey 5-0, allowing the Englishman to win just three games as the Dutchman moved serenely into the semifinals.
Gabriel Clemens’ great run at the World Championship continued with a massive win over Gerwyn Price in the last round and as the first German to reach the semifinals of the PDC World Darts Championship, he has already set a record.
However, he’ll have to be at his best to beat Michael Smith, the recent Grand Slam of Darts winner who ended his wait for a major trophy with that win in Wolverhampton and who has been in generally excellent form since.
Last year’s beaten finalist is 1/3 with bet365 to reach the final again and he is certainly the player to back here, although I expect Clemens to run him much closer than his 12/5 odds suggest.
No player has looked less likely to lose than Michael van Gerwen in this tournament with the Dutch ace enjoying a worry-free passage through to the semifinals. Dmitri Van den Bergh though is another from the lowlands who is enjoying a very good tournament and this, in my view, should be the best semi-final of the two.
That is, if Van den Bergh can find his best form. If he can, then this could be a classic game and it will be interesting to see how van Gerwen responds if he is put under pressure, or even goes behind in the game early on.
But given the form that the pre-tournament favourite has been in, it would be a huge surprise if he did not reach the final and although this one may be close, I do expect van Gerwen to come through at the key times to clinch the sets and with it the win.
Once today’s semi-finals are concluded the final will take place tomorrow night where we will see the new PDC World Darts Champion of 2023 crowned.
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