Alan Soutar stuns Danny Noppert to reach PDC World Darts Championship last 16 for second year running
Noppert #Noppert
Alan Soutar produced one of the performances of his life to reach the last 16 of the PDC World Darts Championships for the second year running.
The Arbroath firefighter recovered from two sets down to claim a momentous 4-2 victory over ninth seed Danny Noppert in the third round at the Alexandra Palace.
Soutar looked on his way out of the tournament before producing a stunning comeback, winning six legs in a row to level the match at two sets all before checking out 152 to claim the third set and move ahead for the first time.
He then closed out the win with a 130 check-out in the final set, winning 12 out of the last 14 legs to knock-out his Dutch opponent, and will now face German number one Gabriel Clemens on Friday for a place in the quarter-finals.
Soutar’s victory ensures Scottish representation in the fourth round after Peter Wright’s reign as PDC world champion came to a sorry end on Tuesday night.
Wright wore a colourful Christmas shirt on the oche, but that was the only thing that sparkled from the Scot as as Kim Huybrechts claimed the biggest win of his career with a 4-1 victory.
“I beat the name Peter Wright, but the person Peter Wright wasn’t there,” Huybrechts told Sky Sports after the world number two had averaged just 91.28 throughout and was even below 80 in the third set.
“That wasn’t Peter Wright. I have to be honest about that.
“Normally he’s about 20 times better than this. I just played my game, took my chances and got the win.
“I did what I had to do, but I’m not going to be arrogant or cocky. But I’m a happy man to go through to the next round.”
Fellow Scot and two-time PDC world champion Gary Anderson is bidding to join Soutar in the last 16 as he faces Chris Dobey in the third round on Wednesday afternoon.