The wait goes on for Michael van Gerwen to claim his first title of the year with the Belgian Darts Championship the latest tournament that sees the World Number One head out.
Van Gerwen lost out to Michael Smith, a familiar rival in a 6-5 defeat and now the latter moves onto the Quarter-Finals.
It was all confirmed by 'Bully Boy' with a 105 checkout in the decider showing real class when it mattered the most.
This was despite Smith having the momentum for basically the whole match. Van Gerwen was sitting on 20 percent on doubles and Smith took out a potentially pivotal break to go two clear at 4-2 up.
From there he went one away at 5-2 but the doubts started to seemingly creep in as Van Gerwen gained a break back to make it 4-5 from there. It was soon three legs on the spin and the impetus was with Van Gerwen but Smith found his range again to move through.
Speaking of Dutchman heading out in Belgium, Martijn Kleermaker's debut run on the European Tour has come to an end.
The impressive new PDC Tour Card holder lost out to an experienced face especially on the European Tour in Mervyn King who saw him off in a 6-3 victory.
Once again it was the doubles that were seemingly pivotal. King hit 37.5 percent of his (6/16) compared to 23 percent (3/13) from his opponent who himself averaged one more and hit another 180 as well as a high checkout of 104. It wasn't enough to slay 'The King' though who moves into the final session.
Click here for more information about the PDC European Tour, including the format, calendar and the prize fund breakdown.
Schedule
Sunday March 1
Afternoon Session (1300 local time, 1200 GMT)
Third Round
Michael van Gerwen (97.43) 5-6 (93.35) Michael Smith
Mervyn King (93.11) 6-3 (94.18) Martijn Kleermaker
Peter Wright v Danny Noppert
Krzysztof Ratajski v Rob Cross
Dirk van Duijvenbode v Jeffrey de Zwaan
James Wade v Nathan Aspinall
Gerwyn Price v Jamie Hughes
Mensur Suljovic v Steve West
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