Defending champion Michael van Gerwen is into the semi-finals of the PDC World Championship after a hard-fought 5-2 victory over Darius Labanauskas.
Welsh third seed Gerwyn Price remains on course to meet Van Gerwen in the final after a dominant 5-1 win against three-time BDO champion Glen Durrant.
Van Gerwen plays England’s Nathan Aspinall in Monday’s semi-finals, with Price facing Scotland’s Peter Wright.
The Dutch top seed was far from his best at Alexandra Palace on Sunday.
He started poorly and lost the first set to Lithuania’s Labanauskas before edging a tight second to level.
The three-time world champion started to shine in opening a 3-1 lead before seeming to lose his concentration, finally securing the win in a scrappy ending that saw both players miss several darts at low checkouts.
“That was a bit embarrassing,” Van Gerwen told Sky Sports.
“At 3-1 there were no worries but then I feel asleep and at this stage of the tournament you’re not allowed to do that.
“It was a boring game – usually when I play the likes of Gerwyn Price there is a bit of aggression but that didn’t happen here so it was a bit flat.”
After an ill-tempered last-16 win over Simon Whitlock on Saturday, Price was in far more confident form, his solid scoring enabling him to go 2-0 up despite Durrant hitting four early checkouts of more than 100.
Durrant pulled a set back after finally breaking Price’s throw at the seventh attempt but Price then surged clear to complete a comfortable win.
Price will now face seventh seed Wright, who had predicted Durrant would upset the Welshman.
“I played decent and was clinical when it mattered – Glen outplayed me early on but I hung in there and took the doubles I needed,” said Price.
“Peter thought I was going to lose 5-2, so now I’m going to smash him 6-0!
“Actually I get on with him brilliantly, I think he was just trying to get in my head.”
Wright & Aspinall through
Wright will play in his first World Championship semi-final since 2017 after averaging 105.86 in beating England’s Luke Humphries 5-3 in the afternoon session.
The Scot dominated early on, including a 170 checkout, before Humphries hit back to make it 4-3.
But Wright held firm to claim the eighth set 3-1 and secure the win.
In Sunday’s other quarter-final, 12th seed Nathan Aspinall beat Dimitri van den Bergh 5-3.
Aspinall looked comfortable at 4-1 in front but had to hold off a fightback from the Belgian to reach the semi-finals for the second successive year in his first two PDC World Championship appearances.
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