Adrian Lewis hit a sensational nine-dart finish in his third-round match against Raymond van Barneveld in the William Hill World Darts Championship, but it failed to prevent him from slipping to a 4-3 defeat.
Two-time champion Lewis sent the Alexandra Palace crowd wild with the first perfect leg of darts in this year’s tournament as he took the opening set, but he did not hit those heights again and Dutchman Van Barneveld, a five-time world champion, battled his way to a dramatic victory.
The first set went with the darts and Lewis wrapped it up in the best possible manner by landing two 180s and following it up with another treble 20, treble 19 and double 12 for his nine-darter.
There were once again no breaks in the second set as Van Barneveld levelled the match at 1-1.
Van Barneveld then claimed the first break of the match in the opening leg of the third set, but the Dutchman failed to take advantage and poor finishing allowed Stoke-based Lewis to break back before taking the next two legs, securing the set 3-1 thanks to a 155 finish.
A 157 finish from Lewis was the highlight of the fourth set, but three missed darts at a double allowed Van Barneveld to snatch the set 3-2.
The fifth set saw some poor darts from Van Barneveld and Lewis won it emphatically 3-0 to move within a set of victory.
Van Barneveld led off in the sixth set and the first four legs went with the throw, as did the fifth leg but only after Lewis had missed a dart at double seven to win the match.
That set up a deciding set and after the first two legs were shared, Van Barneveld claimed the crucial break in the third leg with a 78 finish, although there were then a few nervy moments in the following leg as he missed five darts to win the match before taking out double 10.
"What a game," said Van Barneveld. "The first set was probably the best I’ve played so far, but Adrian got the nine-darter and I went off thinking, ‘If this is the standard, can you do it?’
"It went to 2-1, 2-2, 3-2, 3-3 and I just tried to keep believing."