Germany's best darts professional Gabriel Clemens mastered the start of the World Cup in London with ease and reached the third round.

The 38-year-old Saarlander prevailed 3-0 on Thursday evening after a few starting problems against the Welsh youngster Lewy Williams and is thus, as in the previous year, in the round of 32. This starts on December 27th.

Clemens will meet Premier League winner Jonny Clayton from Wales on Monday (10.30 p.m. at Sport1 and DAZN).

The "German Giant", as Clemens is called, has to spend Christmas in the British capital because of the strict quarantine rules. Clemens will start as a clear outsider against Clayton. In the duel with the young Williams, Clemens benefited from the fact that his opponent missed almost all chances on the double fields. He himself was merciless in this regard, converting six out of seven throws in the first two sets. The best German professional was able to achieve an average performance over long distances to reach the next round.

Florian Hempel is also still represented in the tournament.

After defeating Belgian world number five, Dimitri van den Bergh, he is in round three and will face Australian outsider Raymond Smith there on Monday (4 p.m.).

Hempel is currently experiencing the most exciting and successful phase of his career at the World Cup.

As a private person, the 31-year-old from Cologne has to cut back a lot.

Because of the strict quarantine rules, Hempel cannot travel home over the Christmas period, he spends the festival of love in London.

Christmas in the player hotel

"Of course it is not what you want when your son is at home and celebrates Christmas with the whole family and you can only connect yourself to a maximum of face time," said Hempel of the German press agency. He added that he would make Christmas in the players' hotel “sure to be beautiful under the circumstances”. The former second division handball player surprisingly won 3-1 against van den Bergh on Tuesday evening.

Suffered, Raymond van Barneveld packed his three arrows and snuck off the world's largest darts stage. The returnee's adventure came to an end after the second round and a 3-1 loss to England's former world champion Rob Cross. "He's a legend and played like a champion in the first set, but once I got my bearings, I had the game to beat him," commented Cross, who had to wait a bit for the congratulations from the sad loser .

In the Alexandra Palace in London it was once again extremely atmospheric on the eve of Christmas. Although Cross is English, the almost 3,000 fans stood together behind van Barneveld and thus formed the famous “Barney Army” that has accompanied the 54-year-old for many seasons. "I haven't seen an atmosphere like this in years," said Cross. Only when he equalized the 0-1 deficit did it get a little quieter in the cheerful beer hall.

What's next for van Barneveld? He resigned in December 2019 and announced his resignation for one year. In the world rankings he finished 68th before the current World Cup. The way back to the top will be a long one - the badly bent "Barney" also became aware of this on Thursday evening. Cross now meets Northern Irishman Daryl Gurney in round three. Cross had won the world title against record champion Phil Taylor on his debut in 2018. Van Barneveld's five trophies (1998, 1999, 2003, 2005 and 2007) at the most important tournament in the world are a long way behind.

In the afternoon, the seeded Austrian Mensur Suljovic had already said goodbye.

The veteran lost 3-2 to Scottish Alan Soutar after leading 2-0 and forgetting several match darts.

The Portuguese José de Sousa prevailed 3-2 against the Englishman Jason Lowe.

The third round begins on December 27th.

Then even seasoned professionals can compete against each other.

The finals at Alexandra Palace will take place on January 3rd.