Michael van Gerwen survived a scare to book his place in the quarter-finals of the PDC World Championship, defeating Gerwyn Price 4-2 at Alexandra Palace. The defending champion and No1 seed did not have things all his own way against his Welsh opponent.
The Dutchman won the first two sets before Price, the No16 seed, impressively fought back. After winning the third set, 32-year-old Price took the first leg of the fourth set against the darts, held his own throw, then hit double 10 to level the contest.
However, Price squandered a chance to take the first leg of the fifth set against the darts before missing four darts at double top which would have put him a set from victory. It proved costly as Van Gerwen went 3-2 up and finished off his opponent in the sixth set with double seven.
Van Gerwen will play Raymond van Barneveld in the last eight. 'I will have to play better than I did in this game, simple as that,' he told Sky Sports. Van Barneveld reached the quarter-finals with a 4-1 victory over Vincent van der Voort, who started impressively with a 156 checkout but faded.
In other matches, Jamie Lewis produced a stunning display to defeat No2 seed Peter Wright 4-1, while James Richardson, Darren Webster and Toni Alcinas also advanced with 4-1 wins.
