World number one and 2021 champion Gerwyn Price was sensationally dumped out of the 2023 PDC World Championship by a fantastic Gabriel Clemens, with the Welshman taking to donning ear defenders and then ear plugs on his way to a humbling 5-1 quarter-final defeat.
After going into a commercial break 3-1 down, Price came out for the fifth set with the noise-cancelling headset and immediately proceeded to land a maximum on the way to registering a 12-dart leg. But Clemens stormed back to extend his lead with three straight legs, with the Alexandra Palace crowd simply throwing more weight behind the German’s cause after seeing Price’s unusual accessory.
And when Price returned after the next break wearing ear plugs, it again failed to spark a turnaround in his form as Clemens recorded a three-dart average of almost 100 in a scintillating display.
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The former champion hit checkouts of 140 and 110 on the way to the first set, but his initial 107 average dropped below 94 in the second set as a big miss on double nine helped to swing things Clemens’ way and the German hit a maximum on the way to levelling the macth with double 18.
Clemens continued to jump on Price’s errors on doubles, clinching the third set at the seventh time of asking with double two. He was then 3-1 up as Price’s slump continued and Clemens continually found big 100-plus scores easy to come by.
Clearly rattled, Price emerged from the short break with a pair of ear defenders on, but Clemens’ three consecutive legs were crowned with a 46 checkout to go 4-1 up with something to spare.
Cue the ear plugs, but Clemens again didn’t let it bother him as he broke Price in the second leg of the sixth set and then threw 140
It was an astonishing win for Clemens, who spent his first full year on the pro tour in 2022 and had never been beyond the fourth round at Ally Pally before. On Monday he will meet Michael Smith for a place in the World Championship final.
Meanwhile, Price later took to Instagram to say: "So frustrating you play all year round preparing for this one tournament. So gutted I wasn't let play but good luck everyone left in. Not sure I will ever play in this event again."
In the night’s other quarter-final, three-time champion Michael van Gerwen made quick work of England’s Chris Dobey. The great Dutchman was relentless in racking up 15 of the 18 legs for a 5-0 win which tees up a semi-final with Belgian number one Dimitri van den Bergh in the last four.
MVG went 100-plus in his first three visits to the oche as he set his stall out early, then he then broke in the fourth leg to take the first frame and backed that up by breaking in the second leg next time out on the way to a 2-0 lead.
Dobey struggled to keep anything like the same pace as Van Gerwen, who had followed up a three-dart average of 107 in the first set with 103 and 104 in the second and third respectively. And when the Englishman did get to the double first, he failed to capitalise often enough to knock the great man off his stride.
Van Gerwen added the fourth without reply, leaving Dobey throwing his hands up in apparent despair as he made his way off for the break in action. He at least took a leg off MVG in the third leg of set five, taking the darts from his opponent for a first mark on the scoreboard since the second set.
But the 33-year-old closed out with double five to clinch his spot in an eighth world championship semi-final and first since 2020.
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