Darts World Matchplay 2015: Round 2 Results, Standings, Updated Draw, Fixtures
The first four quarter-finalists of this year's World Matchplay of Darts were decided on Tuesday after Peter Wright, Ian White, Michael van Gerwen and Gerwyn Price booked their spots in the last eight.
On Wednesday, Dave Chisnall, James Wade, Mensur Suljovic and Phil Taylor also secured their spots in what'll be a star-studded set of matches.
Read on for a look at the Round 2 results in full, the quarter-finalist lineup and a recap of all the action from the Blackpool Winter Gardens.
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| Peter Wright (SCO) | 13-7 | Andrew Gilding (ENG) |
| Simon Whitlock (AUS) | 9-13 | Ian White (ENG) |
| Michael van Gerwen (NED) | 13-2 | Jamie Lewis (WAL) |
| Gerwyn Price (WAL) | 13-10 | Adrian Lewis (ENG) |
| Peter Wright (SCO) | vs. | Gerwyn Price (WAL) |
| Ian White (ENG) | vs. | Michael van Gerwen (NED) |
| Dave Chisnall | vs. | Phil Taylor (ENG) |
| James Wade (ENG) | vs. | Mensur Suljovic (AUT) |
| Dave Chisnall (ENG) | 13-11 | Keegan Brown (ENG) |
| James Wade (ENG) | 13-8 | Brendan Dolan (NIR) |
| Phil Taylor (ENG) | 13-6 | Andy Hamilton (ENG) |
| Gary Anderson (SCO) | 9-13 | Mensur Suljovic (AUT) |
Wednesday Recap
It was a prosperous evening for the game’s big names on Wednesday, with Dave Chisnall, James Wade and Phil Taylor all making good on their favourites tag to progress into the quarter-finals.
The first and, on paper, the most intriguing the match of the evening saw Chisnall tackle the prodigious Keegan Brown. The latter has been tipped to go to the very top by the darting cognoscenti, but the man from St. Helens eventually had too much class in a thrilling 13-11 win.
Indeed, Brown actually led 8-7 after 15 legs, but Chisnall responded with supreme composure to rattle off three successive legs and break the will of the youngster.
The winner paid tribute to his opponent in the aftermath on social media:
It was a game which set a thrilling early tone for the evening and, perhaps inspired by the quality of the match previous, Wade came out and played with major assurance. His opponent, Brendan Dolan, was unable to recover after falling 4-1 behind early in the match.
There were some signs of life from the Northern Irishman late on—a 170 checkout helped Dolan get the game back to 8-6 at one stage—but Wade delivered when it mattered throughout the contest, securing a comfortable 13-8 win.
Needless to say, the man known as The Machine was pretty pleased with a clinical performance, per the PDC Twitter account:
For those in attendance in Blackpool, the best was still to come. Next up was Taylor, the 16-time world champion and he quelled a fightback from Andy Hamilton with his patented panache, eventually coming through a 13-6 winner.
Hamilton recovered from 6-2 to level the match at 6-6, but after he missed a dart to go in front, Taylor responded tremendously. The Power won seven legs in a row to obliterate any momentum accrued by Hamilton and eventually coasted to an easy triumph.
As we can see here courtesy of BetVictor, Taylor, who missed a dart in the match to notch a perfect nine-dart finish, was thrilling the Winter Gardens crowd:
Rounding things off were reigning world and Premier League champion Anderson facing Mensur Suljovic. In a shocking development that paralleled the end of Tuesday's matches, the underdog Suljovic pulled the upset over the third-seeded Scotsman.
Laure James of Sky Sports did well to describe what befell Anderson by recalling some of his own self criticism:
Anderson couldn't convert even the slightest opportunities he had to get back into Wednesday's match. When Suljovic missed two checkout chances leading 11-7, the favored Anderson couldn't capitalize, which could have swung the late momentum.
Next up for the surprising Suljovic is Wade, who advanced with relative ease but has to be wary of an adversary who will have little to lose after progressing farther than expected.
Tuesday Recap
First up on Tuesday's slate was a matchup between Wright and Gilding, where the latter initially stuck close with his opponent before eventually giving way to Snakebite's steady arm.
No more than one leg had separated the pair at any point in the first nine legs, with Wright leading 5-4, but it was at this point the No. 5 seed pulled away after correcting some early shakiness.
Wright won four games in succession to claim an 8-4 lead and kept Gilding at arm's length from that point on to triumph 13-7.
As shown by the official PDC Darts Twitter account, Gilding landed the higher finishes and checkout success, but it was victor Wright who made it to those closing opportunities on a more frequent basis:
Next up came No. 8 seed Whitlock and ninth-seeded White in what always promised to be a tight contest, and that's exactly what fans were treated to as the Englishman launched a terrific comeback win.
Whitlock led from the beginning and held his throw well to ensure he didn't fall behind, hitting his maximums early on to surge into an 8-5, taking four legs in a row at that point.
However, the fixture started to slip in White's favour, and after claiming a 13-part finish to climb within two legs of his foe at 86, "Diamond" initiated his rival.
The lower seed lost just one more leg before beginning a run of seven back-to-back leg victories, landing double 10 to finish and clinching a dramatic 13-9 result to make his first quarter-final appearance in Blackpool. White reacted to his underdog win:
While those results were edgy affairs, Van Gerwen's landslide 13-2 demolition of Lewis was less so, as the Dutchman showed he means business at the World Matchplay of Darts this year.
Van Gerwen recorded an astonishing average of 110.93, per Punters Lounge Darts, as he stormed through to the quarter-finals, where he'll come up against White:
"That was quick! Van Gerwen wins 12 out of 13 legs with a 111 average to win 13-2! pic.twitter.com/wSCvoT0ZXB
— Punters Lounge Darts (@PL_DartsTips) July 21, 2015"
Lewis is deserving of his credit despite winning just two of the 15 legs played, however, averaging just under 100 himself (98.86), according to the official PDC Darts website.
On any other day, that kind of performance may be enough to make one's way in the competition, but Van Gerwen was indomitable as he finished double 14 to register the fourth-highest-ever average in Matchplay history.
As if that match couldn't be topped, Tuesday's final showdown fostered the biggest of upsets when maiden Matchplay competitor Gerwyn Price turned in a virtuoso effort of his own to stun Adrian Lewis 13-10.
PDC Darts captured footage of Price's clinching throw and subsequent elation:
Although he was edged out in terms of overall average 99.2-97.9, Price had a slightly better checkout percentage of 44.8 to Lewis' 40 to ensure victory.
Lewis did well to rally and broke twice before Price eventually sealed the deal, living up to his "Iceman" moniker against a heavily favored adversary. The history Van Gerwen made was noteworthy, but Price's career-best showing all but stole the show in a highly entertaining conclusion to Tuesday's slate.
The type of momentum Price is riding now ought to give him a chance to stride on with confidence in his impending matchup with Wright. There's little reason to doubt Price now—his inexperience didn't exactly show against a past Matchplay champion on Tuesday.
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