Humphries dominates Lim, 71, to reach round three

Luke Humphries proved far too strong for 71-year-old Paul Lim as the 2024 champion comfortably progressed to the third round of the PDC World Championship.

Humphries was in ruthless mood in the first two sets and won all of the first eight legs played, before Lim brought the biggest cheer of the night at Alexandra Palace by landing double top to clinch what would be his only leg of the contest.

Prior to the match, the world number two had described Lim as a "legend" and said a World Championship defeat by the Singapore veteran in December 2020 was a turning point in his career.

Their mutual respect was shown when the pair shared a warm handshake after Lim's successful shot at double, and again once Humphries had wrapped up a dominant victory, with Humphries admitting he was "glad" Lim was able to win a leg.

The 30-year-old Englishman, who will play Germany's Gabriel Clemens next, told Sky Sports: "Against someone you really like and you're 6-0 up in legs, honestly it's hard because you don't want to destroy people all of the time. There are certain players that you want to, but certain players you don't want to and he's one that you don't.

"It was a game I had to win, that was the most important thing and I put myself in a good position after the first two sets.

"He [Lim] is just a legend, I love him to bits and I hope that's not the last time we see him on this stage."

Lim had created history by reaching round two, becoming the oldest player to win a match in the tournament's history.

Both players started the match with a 180 and although Lim was serenaded throughout by the crowd, that support was not enough to carry him to an unlikely upset.

Gian van Veen and Nathan Aspinall, seeded 10th and 15th respectively, also made it through to the last 32 during Monday's evening session.

That was in contrast to the first session of the day, when both seeds in action - James Wade and Wessel Nijman - were eliminated.

Their exits mean 14 of the 32 seeded players have already gone out of the tournament, with eight remaining second-round matches to be played on Tuesday.

European Championship winner and reigning World Youth champion Van Veen put in a statement performance to underline his title credentials against Scotland's Alan Soutar.

Van Veen averaged almost 105 across the first two sets but almost found himself 2-0 behind, with Soutar missing a dart at double eight for a two-set lead.

The Dutchman, 23, took advantage of that slip to level the match and won the next six legs as well, ending with a match average of 108.28.

"If I can continue like this all tournament, I could go really far," he said.

"Last week, I was just happy to win my first game [at the World Championship] and now I'm happy to survive [in the tournament past] Christmas.

"After Christmas I'll be back and I'm really looking forward to it."

Latvia's Madars Razma will be Van Veen's next opponent, having also beaten a Scottish opponent, Darren Beveridge, earlier on Monday.

In the afternoon session, seventh seed Wade suffered a fourth successive second-round exit, losing a thrilling tie to fellow Englishman Ricky Evans.

Evans twice led by a set and both players missed match darts in the decider, with the world number 43 eventually taking it 6-4 in the fifth.

"Imagine coming to the darts and winning 3-0 - what's the point? Make it interesting," said a joyous Evans on stage after his victory.

Highly-rated Englishman Charlie Manby, 20, was a straight-set winner against American Adam Sevada and will be Evans' third-round opponent.

Dutch 31st seed Nijman struggled on the doubles as he lost 3-0 to Clemens, who reached the semi-finals in 2023.

Elsewhere, Kenyan debutant David Munyua was unable to follow up his shock win over Mike de Decker in round one, winning just two legs in a 3-0 defeat by world number 40 Kevin Doets.

Doets will next face Aspinall, who was a 3-0 winner over American Leonard Gates.

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