Schedule Friday night at World Darts Championship with Michael van Gerwen, Gary Anderson and Michael Smith

When Gary Anderson, Michael van Gerwen and Michael Smith play in one session at the World Darts Championship, you know the final stage is approaching at Alexandra Palace. Three former PDC world champions take the stage in London on Friday night.

We begin the evening with the final match of the third round. That one is between two-time world champion Gary Anderson and Boris Krcmar, who, by the way, has been world champion in softtip eight times. Anderson started the tournament as a major outsider, and that status has certainly not diminished after the elimination of Peter Wright and Gerwyn Price. In his first match, 'The Flying Scotsman' also had no problems at all with Simon Whitlock, who was overwhelmed 3-0. His Croatian opponent Krcmar has already played two matches. Krcmar started the tournament with a 3-1 win over Keegan Brown and then also beat Dirk van Duijvenbode 3-1.

Then tonight we start already with the fourth round of the World Darts Championship. And what a great match to start the eighth finals with; Stephen Bunting against Michael van Gerwen. At the end of November they met in the quarter-finals of the Players Championship Finals. Bunting led 9-6 in this match, but eventually had to acknowledge his superiority to the Dutchman by 9-10.

They are also two players who have both already shown top form during this tournament and have yet to lose a set. Van Gerwen won convincingly against Keane Barry (3-0) and Richard Veenstra (4-0), while Bunting left his opponents Ryan Joyce (3-0) and Florian Hempel (4-0) defenseless with averages well over a hundred. Van Gerwen is of course the towering favorite, but Bunting has indeed beaten the Dutchman before. Just earlier this year in Kiel, at the first Euro Tour tournament of the season, Bunting won 6-4. It was one of three wins Bunting managed to record over Van Gerwen in 23 encounters.

The evening concludes with a delightful clash between Michael Smith and Chris Dobey. If anyone can beat the reigning world champion, it might just be 'Hollywood'. With averages of 103 and 102 earlier this tournament, Dobey is in great form, while Smith handled Madars Razma with difficulty in the third round. Moreover, Dobey has a remarkably good record against 'Bullyboy'. In the head to head, it is 6-6, but Dobey won four of the last five clashes.

Boris Krcmar v Gary Anderson (R3)

Michael van Gerwen v Stephen Bunting (R4)

Michael Smith v Chris Dobey (R4)