PDC World Darts Championship: Gary Anderson beats Peter Wright to book place in semi-finals
Flying Scotsman will play reigning champion Michael van Gerwen on Saturday night
Thursday 1 January 2015 22:52, UK
Gary Anderson will play reigning champion Michael van Gerwen in the PDC World Championship semi-finals after beating Peter Wright 5-1 in their quarter-final clash.
The world No 4 controlled the match throughout, hitting 11 180s and averaging 102.12 to ease past fellow Scotsman Wright at Alexandra Palace on Thursday night.
Anderson opened the match with a 110 and flew through the first set to win 3-1. Wright, last year's beaten finalist, looked to be struggling to find form on the oche under pressure from Anderson's flowing throwing and consistently high average.
Wright managed to put two legs on the board but Anderson found an excellent 170 checkout to hold throw and then a 121 ending on the bull gave him a 2-0 lead.
Wright staged a minor comeback in the third set, hitting his first 180 of the match, withstanding a break and then breaking back with a 96 finish to snatch the set.
But that brief spell of form could not catalyse a decent run for Wright, who was always chasing at his opponent’s heels. Anderson hit 25 140-plus scores and six legs against throw during the match, and cruised to the fourth and fifth sets to seal a convincing victory.
After the match he told Sky Sports Darts: "I seemed to be in control. I missed a few doubles and then he'd bang them in. I was giving legs away to be honest. I thought every time I missed he was going to take them out so I'm just glad to be off the hurdle there.
"The scoring was there; the doubles were a bit poor and think double 12 killed me a bit. I had about 12 shots at it and hit it about twice but I’m going alright."
Anderson will now play Michael van Gerwen in Saturday's semi-final. Van Gerwen beat Robert Thornton earlier in the evening to continue his title defence.
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