Yahoo Sports Humphries, Price & Wright into fourth round at Worlds
Reigning champion Luke Humphries and previous winners Gerwyn Price and Peter Wright are all into the fourth round of the PDC World Darts Championship.
Humphries, who has not played since the opening night on 15 December, was far from his best but still ended up breezing to a comfortable 4-0 win against Wales' Nick Kenny.
He started scratchily and was perhaps fortunate to win the first set, but improved as the game progressed and finished with a 98.59 average and 52.2 checkout percentage.
"I knew I wasn't firing, I suspected there was so much more to give, but it just wasn't coming out of me," Humphries told Sky Sports.
"It was a solid performance and I'm not going to give up this world title without a fight. It is not my best but when someone pushes me I know I can provide the goods."
The 29-year-old will face two-time champion Wright in the last 16 after the Scot beat Jermaine Wattimena 4-2.
Wright, 54, is struggling with a chest infection but was ruthless in key moments and produced one of his best performances of a difficult 2024.
"It (chest infection) wasn't affecting my darts, I was just holding my breath," Wright, who is the 17th seed, told Sky Sports.
"I'm not bad for an old guy, am I? It is about spirit and the support was brilliant. Hopefully I'll be feeling a little bit better in the next round."
In the match of the night, 2021 champion Price beat Joe Cullen 4-3 in a sudden-death leg to set up a fourth-round meeting with Welsh compatriot Jonny Clayton.
Tenth-seed Price led 3-0 but Cullen, the 23rd seed, fought back to force a decider.
That was chaotic throughout, with nine breaks of throw in 11 legs, as Price hit just 15 of his 58 attempts at a checkout in the match and Cullen 19 from 54.
Both missed match darts, before Cullen produced a superb 170 checkout to force the sudden-death leg, where Price broke one final time - the last of seven in a row at the end of the game.
"That was tough. I actually thought I was going to lose it but I stayed in it and got over the line." Price told Sky Sports.
"I've got a lot more in the tank. I can play a lot better than I have tonight. I didn't play brilliantly but I did enough to win in the end."
Heta hits nine-darter but becomes latest seed to fall
Ninth seed Damon Heta hit a nine-darter but was knocked out by unseeded Englishman Luke Woodhouse.
The Australian celebrated wildly after hitting double 12 to complete the perfect leg - with Woodhouse raising his opponent's arm as a lively crowd roared their approval - on his way to winning the second set.
It is the second nine-darter of this year's tournament after Dutchman Christian Kist achieved the feat in the second round.
Kist also lost the match and nine of the 16 players to make a nine-dart finish at Alexandra Palace have gone on to lose the match.
Heta - who narrowly missed out on a nine-darter in the previous round - collects £60,000 for the feat, with the same amount awarded by sponsors to a charity and to one spectator.
Posting on X, Heta said: "Hit a nine but lost the match… would give the nine for the win but it doesn't work that way. Never got going in that game & the nine was totally out of blue with how I was playing."
Woodhouse fought back from 3-1 down to win the final three sets without dropping a leg.
"I've got no words at all - the crowd has been fantastic," Woodhouse told Sky Sports.
"I don't think it was the greatest game in the world but I've managed to come through it. I am over the moon."
Heta was the 15th seed to be knocked out and fourth of the top 10 seeds to depart.
Clayton and Bunting also advance
Woodhouse will face Stephen Bunting in the next round after the eighth seed saw off Latvia's Madars Razma.
Bunting, the reigning Masters champion and former BDO world champion, put in an accomplished display to win 4-1.
Having taken out 113 to win the first set, 'The Bullet' swiftly won the second before being pegged back by Razma, who stole the third with a 119 checkout.
Bunting had responded well to minor setbacks throughout the match and did so again in the fourth.
Razma's 149 out took it to a deciding leg but fan favourite Bunting held throw and sealed the victory with a 96 that ensured he finished with an average of 100.06.
"I've dreamt about winning this tournament for the past 20 years and I'd love to do it," Bunting said. "With the Bunting Army behind me, who is going to stop us?"
Meanwhile, Clayton held off a valiant fightback from Daryl Gurney to take the deciding set and move into the fourth round with a 4-3 win.
Welshman Clayton edged the first set then produced checkouts of 160 and 120 to clinch the second and third respectively.
But the seventh seed faltered and Gurney took advantage, averaging over 100 in the next two sets to make it 3-2 before levelling the match after a somewhat comical leg, in which both players missed multiple darts at double.
Clayton came through in the decider, though, shrugging off three missed darts for the match to hit double four.
Friday's results
Afternoon Session
Third round
Damon Heta 3-4 Luke Woodhouse
Jonny Clayton 4-3 Daryl Gurney
Stephen Bunting 4-1 Madars Razma
Evening Session
Third round
Gerwyn Price 4-3 Joe Cullen
Jermaine Wattimena 2-4 Peter Wright
Luke Humphries 4-0 Nick Kenny
Saturday's schedule
Afternoon Session (12:30)
Third round
Ryan Joyce v Ryan Searle
Scott Williams v Ricardo Pietreczko
Nathan Aspinall v Andrew Gilding
Evening Session (19:00)
Third round
Chris Dobey v Josh Rock
Michael van Gerwen v Brendan Dolan
Luke Littler v Ian White
There will be live text commentary on the evening session from 18:45 GMT on the BBC Sport website and app.
