Brendan Dolan suffered a 4-2 loss to three-time world champion Michael van Gerwen in the third round of the World Darts Championship at the Ally Pally in London.
The Fermanagh native took the opening set, but couldn’t find the answers as MVG hit a purple patch in sets three and four.
Dolan threatened to bring the game to a deciding set as some erratic finishing from van Gerwen left the door open.
However, Dolan was unable to hit a 70 checkout in what proved to be the final leg of his World Championship journey for 2024.
Dolan won the first set despite falling a break behind and claimed the opener 3-2 with a 72 checkout.
The Dutchman replied in typically empathic fashion and won the second set thanks to a classy 129 checkout.
The three-time world champion took the first leg of the third set against the darts and held his throw in the next to give himself some breathing space. Dolan missed three darts at double 10 to hold his throw as MVG claimed a whitewash in the set to take a 2-1 lead.
A 149 checkout in the next was followed by a break of throw as Dolan missed three darts at double 19.
Van Gerwen won an eighth straight leg with a 72 checkout as his average moved to 118.
The Fermanagh man claimed a much-needed hold of throw at the beginning of the fifth set and also won the third after MVG took the second leg.
After the Dutchman missed six darts to claim the fourth leg, Dolan tidied up to claim a 3-1 win to reduce the arrears to 3-2 in sets.
The first four legs of the sixth set all went with throw with Dolan hitting a brilliant 123 checkout in the fourth.
However, after Dolan failed to take out 70, MVG finished the game on double eight to claim a 4-2 victory to progress to the last 16 of the tournament.
Earlier in the night, Josh Rock was beaten 4-2 by Chris Dobey in a thrilling game.
The first four sets all went against the darts with Rock taking the early lead before Dobey hit back to level at 2-2.
Dobey went two legs up in the third set before Rock hit back with brilliant checkouts of 114 and 106 to level the set.
However, Rock missed a chance to clinch the fifth set with tops and Dobey took out 60 to hold his throw and lead for the first time.
He moved to within one leg of the match before Rock replied yet again with a stunning 98 checkout - finishing 20, double 19 and double 20.
Dobey sealed the match with a classy double-double checkout himself, hitting two 19s to win the set 3-1 and the match 4-2.
Speaking to Sky Sports afterwards, Dobey remarked: “Whenever I play him (Rock) we always have great games and there is a lot of respect because he just gets on with the game. We dug out another belter of a game and I'm delighted to get the win."
“I expect that of Josh and he expects that of me. It was a tough encounter but it is another one that I am delighted to get through. We were neck and neck in the rankings so that's given me a little bit of breathing space now."
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