Alan Soutar stuns Danny Noppert to reach PDC World Darts Championship last 16 for second year running
Noppert #Noppert
Alan Soutar is the unlikely last Scot standing at the PDC World Darts Championship after producing one of the performances of his life to reach the last 16 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 as fellow countrymen and former champions Gary Anderson and Peter Wright crashed to shock defeats.
Soutar also looked on his way out of the tournament at 2-0 down, 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 into a 3-2 lead.
He then closed out the victory with a 130 check-out in the final set, winning 12 out of the last 14 legs to stun 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 surprise exits for big names Wright and Anderson.
Wright’s reign as PDC world champion came to a sorry end on Tuesday night 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.”
Wright took the first set 3-0 and Huybrechts, who came to London battling to stay in the world’s top 32, appeared to be up against it.
But he seized the initiative by winning seven of the next eight legs and a cool 67 checkout gave him a 3-1 advantage.
Wright tried to fight back in the fifth set, but he missed double 18 to extend the match and Huybrechts stepped in to seal matters before a shocked crowd.
Two-time PDC world champion Anderson also exited at the third round stage – for the first time since his debut in 2010 – after crashing to a 4-1 defeat to Chris Dobey on Wednesday.
Anderson dominated the opening set, averaging 115 and romping all three legs to quickly move into a 1-0 lead, but the rest of the match belonged to Englishman Dobey as he claimed the next four sets to seal a major victory over the 2015 and 2016 champion.
Dobey hinted afterwards that something Anderson said during one of the breaks had fired him up for victory.
“It’s a massive win for me,” he told Sky Sports. “Gary said something to me in the last break that I didn’t like so there was no way he was winning that game after that. It kind of annoyed me. The man I am, I tried to forget about it. He’s a class lad but I didn’t agree with what he said.”