Mensur Suljovic delivered a high-class match with superstar Michael van Gerwen and ultimately had to admit defeat 2:4.
Mensur Suljovic was eliminated from the Darts World Cup in London despite a strong performance in the third round. In the evening session on Wednesday, the Viennese lost to the top favorite Michael van Gerwen in a high-class game with 2:4. Suljovic played an average of 98.90, booked a double rate of 65 percent and demanded everything from the world number three from the Netherlands.
Probably the best game of the tournament so far went at an extremely high level over the entire distance. Van Gerwen only won the first two sets in the decisive leg, then Suljovic was able to reduce it to 1:2 and then once more to 2:3. “Mighty Mike” had to call up his “A-Game” in order to make it into the round of 16 in the end.
“It was a phenomenal match, but you need two players for something like that, so respect to Mensur Suljovic. My scoring power was fantastic, that was crucial,” said van Gerwen. “I feel confident and good. Winning like I did gives me another boost and extra motivation.” The strong performance of the Austrian impressed and surprised him too: “If someone had said beforehand that Mensur was playing so well, everyone would have answered: are you crazy?”
Earlier, England’s Joe Cullen celebrated a smooth 4-0 win over Australian Damon Heta. He now meets his compatriot, last year’s finalist Michael Smith, who defeated the German Martin Schindler 4:3. “Bully Boy” Smith is one of the big tournament favorites.
Former World Champion Gary Anderson retired in the followingnoon session. The Scot, who won the world’s most important tournament in 2015 and 2016, performed poorly once morest the Englishman Chris Dobey and ultimately lost clearly 4-1. His compatriot Alan Soutar surprisingly won 4:2 once morest Dutchman Danny Noppert.
José de Sousa made a great comeback. The Portuguese turned a 0:3 deficit once morest the Englishman Ryan Searle and still won 4:3.
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