Raymond van Barneveld was unable to follow up his stunt in the quarterfinals of the Bahrain Darts Masters against Luke Humphries against Michael Smith. The world champion was just a bit too strong with 7-5. In the final, Smith showed against Gerwyn Price who is the best darts player in the world at the moment (8-6). Free bets for Smith to win the tournament gave some nice profits to our followers.

Excellent match in Bahrain Darts Masters

Van Barneveld gave Smith an excellent match. It even went up to 3-3, after which the world champion placed a break. With that the curtain seemed to fall, but Barney broke back at 6-4, when Smith missed three match darts. But in the 12th leg Smith made no mistake. Van Barneveld had caused a stunt in the quarter-finals in Bahrain. The world number 29 was the lowest ranked player in the last eight, but beat number 4 on the Order of Merit Humphries after a sensational comeback: from 1-5 to 6-5. Barney started the tournament yesterday with a convincing victory over the unknown Japanese Yuki Yamada (6-2).

Favourite role for Smith

Smith more than lived up to his favorite role. The world champion beat the Belgian Dimitri van den Bergh (6-4) in the first quarter final of the day, who incidentally let Smith escape by missing many doubles. After his victory over Van Barneveld, Smith also settled with Price. Michael van Gerwen was missing in Bahrain. The losing World Cup finalist is enjoying a holiday. The Bahrain Darts Masters was the first tournament of the World Series of Darts in 2023. Part two is in Copenhagen next week with the Nordic Darts Masters.