DARTS statistician 3 Dart Analyst looks ahead to the William Hill World Darts Championship semi-finals.
Gary Anderson (2) v Peter Wright (3)
Anderson
- In the quarter-finals Gary Anderson defeated Dave Chisnall 5-3; it was a very high quality match in which Chisnall hit a PDC World Championship record equalling twenty one 180’s. At the end of the match Anderson’s average was 105.9 whilst Chisnall averaged 104.63.
- Anderson has the highest match average of the tournament so far (107.68 vs Benito van de Pas); he also has the highest tournament average (104.38). Of the remaining four players left in the tournament he’s hit the most 180’s (34).
- The win over Chisnall was Anderson’s sixteenth consecutive win at the World Championship; the last time he lost a match in the tournament was in December 2013 against Michael van Gerwen.
- During those 16 consecutive wins Anderson has averaged over 100 on ten occasions.
- This is Gary Anderson’s fourth appearance in the semi-finals at the PDC World Championship and he has won all three of his previous semi-final matches, dropping a total of five sets across all three matches. Those wins came against Terry Jenkins, Michael van Gerwen and Jelle Klaasen (he averaged over 100 in each match). He did, however, lose a World Championship semi-final to Richie Davies back in his BDO days.
Wright
- Peter Wright reached the semi-finals with a 5-3 win over James Wade. At two sets to one down Wright put together a run of eight consecutive winning legs in a row to take control of the game and although Wade did rally a little, Wright never looked as if he would concede the lead.
- Wright’s average of 104.79 against Wade was his second highest ever in a World Championship match and means he has now averaged over 100 in each of his last six World Championship matches (he’s averaged over 103 in five of those six matches).
- Wright has hit a very impressive 54% of his double attempts during the tournament so far, that’s comfortably the highest percentage of any of the four semi-finalists.
- This is the second time Wright has made it through to the semi-finals at the PDC World Championship; on his previous semi-final appearance back at the 2014 World Championship he defeated Simon Whitlock 6-2.
- Wright is through to his fourth consecutive PDC televised ranking tournament semi-final having also reached the last four at the European Championship, Grand Slam of Darts and Players Championship Finals. He failed to win his semi-final in each of those three tournaments.
- All of Peter Wright’s eight World Championship defeats came against players who had either won a World Championship or have gone to win one since. Those players are Adrian Lewis, Gary Anderson, Michael van Gerwen (three times), Jelle Klaasen, Phil Taylor and Richie Burnett.
Head to Head (Anderson leads 17-11, they have also drawn once in the Premier League)
Gary Anderson has the edge on their overall head to head record and has only lost one of his last eight matches against Peter Wright (one of those eight matches was a drawn Premier League match). The last time they met was at the Auckland Masters last August when Anderson won 10-6 in the quarter-finals. Their only previous meeting at the World Championship was in the quarter-finals at the 2015 World Championship, Anderson comfortably won 5-1 on his way to winning the his first world title.
Michael van Gerwen (1) v Raymond van Barneveld (12)
van Gerwen
- Michael van Gerwen powered his way to a 5-1 win over Daryl Gurney in the quarter-finals. Van Gerwen had won the first set with three 12 darts legs (which included finishes of 101, 170 and 92) and although Gurney showed plenty of fight and produced some good darts van Gerwen was too strong, especially in the scoring department.
- Van Gerwen followed up his 170 checkout in the opening set against Gurney with another 170 finish in the third set meaning he has now hit three 170 finishes in the tournament so far.
- Van Gerwen averaged 103.08 against Gurney; it was the sixth consecutive World Championship match in which has averaged over 103.
- His quarter-final win increased van Gerwen’s winning streak to 26 consecutive victories since losing to Daryl Gurney at the German Darts Championship in October.
- Since losing to van Barneveld in the last 16 at the 2016 World Championship van Gerwen has now won 38 consecutive matches in PDC televised ranking tournaments.
- This is van Gerwen’s fourth World Championship semi-final appearance; he has won two and lost one of his previous three appearances at this stage of the tournament. In his last World Championship semi-final two years ago he was beaten 6-3 by Gary Anderson.
van Barneveld
- Raymond van Barneveld won through to the semi-finals with a 5-3 victory over Phil Taylor. With the match finely poised at three sets each van Barneveld won two sets in a row, sealing the win with an 86 checkout on the bull.
- Van Barneveld averaged 96.31 in his match against Taylor, he has averaged over 100 in one match at the 2017 World Championship and overall has only averaged over 100 in two of his last eighteen World Championship matches.
- Van Barneveld is through to the semi-finals for the third consecutive year and this will be his fourteenth World Championship semi-final (PDC and BDO included). He has been defeated in each of his last four PDC World Championship semi-final appearances.
- Van Barneveld has now reached the PDC World Championship semi-finals whilst being seeded as low as 12, 13, 14, 16 and 32.
Head to Head (van Gerwen leads 26-16, they have also drawn once in the Premier League)
Michael van Gerwen has the winning record over their previous head to head meetings, with van Barneveld winning just four of their last twenty two matches. Van Barneveld’s last win against van Gerwen was a very significant one; he edged out his Dutch compatriot 4-3 in the last 16 at the 2016 World Championship. Their most recent meeting was last November at the Players Championship Finals where van Gerwen won 10-5 in the quarter-finals.
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