Ryan Searle defeats Peter Wright (Picture: Michael Braunschadel/PDC Europe)

Peter Wright shocked by Ryan Searle in third round of the International Darts Open

By Sporting Life

Darts

Sun September 16, 2018 · 6y ago

Ryan Searle dumped out defending champion Peter Wright with a 6-4 win in round two of the International Darts Open in Riesa on Saturday.

Searle fought back from 3-1 and 4-2 down to record his first ever victory over number one seed Wright and progress to the last 16 of the £135,000 European Tour event.

A ProTour finalist earlier this month, Searle continued his progression by securing the biggest win of his career to date, with the Somerset thrower now set to face German crowd favourite Martin Schindler on Sunday afternoon.

"Things are going really well for me at the moment, this is a big win for my career," said Searle, who is starring in his second European Tour event of the year.

"I took it one leg at a time and I took my chances when I got them, so I'm happy with the victory even though that wasn't the best Peter Wright I played.

"Getting to the final of a ProTour event gave me massive confidence and now I want to push on even further."

German ace Schindler opened the day in style with a superb 6-1 win over Kim Huybrechts, boosting his Unibet European Championship hopes while denting the Belgian's chances of sealing a spot in Dortmund.

Steve West produced an exceptional 111.29 average as he came from a leg down to defeat Mervyn King 6-1 in a brilliant performance, despite the pain of a back problem, to set up a tie with Jonny Clayton.

Austrian Darts Open winner Clayton opened his bid to claim a second European Tour title of the year with a narrow 6-5 defeat of Steve Lennon, landing six 180s in the tie.

Another former European Tour winner Steve Beaton edged past Max Hopp 6-5 and will now take on Simon Whitlock who also won an 11-leg thriller against James Wilson.

Adrian Lewis proved too strong for Terry Jenkins, claiming a 6-0 whitewash, and the two-time World Champion will now meet Stephen Bunting who pulled away from Barry Lynn to claim a 6-3 win over the qualifier.

Number two seed Mensur Suljovic survived a match dart before seeing off Ryan Joyce 6-5 to set up a clash with Danny Noppert, who followed up Friday's whitewash of Robert Thornton with a 6-2 defeat of fellow-Dutchman Jermaine Wattimena.

Last weekend's German Darts Championship winner Ian White eased past Jelle Klaasen 6-2 to progress to the final day of action once again where he will take on James Richardson after the qualifier defeated number eight seed Dave Chisnall 6-4.

One of the most consistent performers on the continent, Joe Cullen defeated Ross Smith 6-3 to set up a meeting with tenth seed Darren Webster who overcame some tricky doubling to defeat Mickey Mansell 6-4, out-scoring the left-hander but missing 24 darts at double before finally sealing the win.

Missed doubles from John Henderson were punished by Gerwyn Price who claimed a 6-3 win, and the Welshman will now take on Daryl Gurney who was at his clinical best in his 6-2 defeat of Friday's top performer Robert Marijanovic.

Sunday will see the last 16 ties played in the afternoon session before the quarter-finals, semi-finals and final in the evening, with coverage to be streamed from 1pm and 7.15pm local time.

The International Darts Open will be broadcast throughout the weekend for PDCTV-HD Subscribers, and through a series of bookmakers' websites worldwide.