PDC World Championship - Report Seventh Day

WADE AND WEBSTER AVOID LADBROKES WORLD DARTS CHAMPIONSHIP UPSETS
James Wade and Mark Webster avoided potential upsets in the Ladbrokes World Darts Championship on Thursday night, as they were joined in the second round of the tournament by big guns Wes Newton and Kevin Painter at Alexandra Palace.

World number six Wade, a three-time semi-finalist, stared defeat in the face against Darren Webster as the Norfolk ace led 2-1 in sets before missing six match darts in the deciding leg of the set. Wade pounced on double ten to save the game, and went on to take the game's deciding set 3-1 to progress to a second round tie with Andy Smith on Monday.

"I feel really lucky tonight and I made the most of it," said Wade. "I usually lose those sort of games but Darren didn't finish the job, and let me in. Maybe I shouldn't still be in the tournament, but I want to make the most of it now. I've prepared for this probably better than I have for any World Championship and I'm feeling good."

Two-time semi-finalist Mark Webster, the former Lakeside Champion, also endured some nervous moments before defeating Austria's Mensur Suljovic in a fifth-set tie-break. Suljovic took the game's first set 3-1 and edged the third 3-2 to take a 2-0 lead in the game, only for Webster to fire through the fourth set without reply to force a decider. Suljovic took out 130 to lead in the fifth set, but Webster won two of the next three to stay level at two-all before firing in a brilliant 150 finish to break throw before sealing an important win on tops.

"It wasn't pretty, but I thought that, at times, I played really well," said Webster, who now meets Scotland's John Henderson. "For the first time in a while, I showed a bit of bottle. I was constantly behind, and I've probably thrown my toys out of the pram a bit when I've been behind on the ProTour in the last year or so, so I'm really pleased from that point of view that I came back to win the game. I'm dead chuffed with that. I'm just glad to win, I wanted it to be a bit more straightforward but I'll take the win. It's an opportunity for me and it's an opportunity for John as well. We're not frightened of each other and it's a big game on Sunday; I've been as high as world number six and I want to get back up there and really compete in these tournaments."

Number eight seed Wes Newton progressed to a second round tie with three-time World Champion John Part as he overcame Hong Kong's Ting Chi Royden Lam 3-1. Lam had enjoyed a 4-1 preliminary round victory over Holland's Gino Vos earlier in the night, and shared the opening four legs of his first round tie with Newton before the Fleetwood ace hit a 14-darter to take the set. Newton then won the second set without reply, only to see the Greater China Qualifier take the third 3-1, sealing the set by taking out 50 on the bullseye, a standard shot in the soft-tip version of darts in which he is a star in Asia. His hopes of glory in the steel-tip format, though, would be ended for this year as Newton came from a leg down in the fourth set to seal victory by taking the deciding leg on tops.

"I'm relieved to get through that and happy with the win," said Newton. "I did the hard work and got two sets up early on and I relaxed a bit. I didn't mean to, but I was a bit lucky in the end because he was one leg away from making it two sets all, and anything can happen then. I didn't know what to expect from Royden but I know more about John Part - he's a really nice man and I've got a lot of respect for him, and I look forward to a tough game against him and I'll have to be on my game. This is a massive tournament, the pinnacle of our year and I want to do well, so I'm giving it my all."

Kevin Painter, the 2004 World Championship runner-up, completed the first round action with arguably the most impressive display, dropping only one leg in a ruthless display against Germany's Tomas Seyler. Seyler opened the game with a 180 and took the first leg only for Painter to sweep through the rest of the contest, hitting nine doubles from 11 attempts and ending the game with a 98.59 average.

"I'm very pleased with that," said Painter, who now faces Paul Nicholson. "When you're coming into a World Championship, you've got to come in with a bang and that's what I've done. My practice has been good and I had a feeling I was going to play. My confidence is high and it all came together tonight. Tomas is a good player and he hit a 180 with his first throw and won the first leg comfortably, but I just kept my head because I knew that I would out-scoring him in the end."







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