Two-time champion Gary Anderson fought back from two sets down to beat Chris Dobey 4-3 in a tense last-16 tie on Day 12 of the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) World Championship on Friday (NZ time).
Anderson trailed 2-0 and 3-2 before clawing his way back to reach the quarter-finals to remain on course for a blockbuster showdown with Michael van Gerwen in the final four at the Alexandra Palace in London.
Scotland's Anderson was taken into sudden death for the second consecutive match against England's Dobey and was forced to dig deep to walk away with the win.
In a contest that featured 28 180s in 33 legs, Dobey, 28, shot out to a 2-0 lead and missed a dart at the bullseye to go 3-1 up before Anderson levelled.
Dobey claimed the fifth set, but Anderson forced the deciding seventh set, and the fourth seed edged in front to throw for the match and needed three darts at double six to claim a nervy win.
Anderson, who admitted afterwards he'd been struggling with back issues, will face either England's Dave Chisnall or Welshman Jamie Lewis in the last eight.
Van Gerwen was less troubled in his fourth-round tie as had a tournament-high 108.08 three-dart average in his commanding 4-1 win fellow two-time champion Adrian Lewis.
World number one van Gerwen looked on track for a comfortable win over his English opponent as he raced out to a 2-0 lead, and had darts to extend that lead, but the Dutchman missed, and Lewis made him pay.
Lewis looked set to tie the match up, but Van Gerwen responded with two 11-dart legs to restore his two-set lead before closing out the win.
Van Gerwen, the favourite to lift the Sid Waddell trophy on January 2, will face either James Wade or Ryan Joyce -both from England - in the quarter-finals.
Earlier, England's Luke Humphries set up a last-16 match against defending champion Rob Cross by beating Belgium's Dimitri van den Bergh 4-1.
South Africa's Devon Petersen reached the fourth round for the first time with a 4-2 win over 19th seed Steve West and will next face England's, Nathan Aspinall.
England's Michael Smith is also through to the round of 16 after beating Scotland's John Henderson 4-2 to set up a tie with compatriot Ryan Searle.
Dutchman Benito van de Pas secured a hard-fought 4-2 win over Spain's Toni Alcinas to set up a fourth-round tie against Northern Ireland's Brendan Dolan.
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