Huddersfield Daily Examiner

WAITES RECOVERS FROM 4-1 DOWN TO KEEP HOPES OF A THIRD WORLD TITLE ALIVE

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trouble his opponent by taking any of the three legs.

However, Waites got the show back on the road in set three and after notching his first leg went on to take the set 3-1.

The comeback failed to build momentum as Baetens took the fourth set 3-1, and the Belgian went two legs up in the fifth before Waites dug deep to draw level but surrendere­d the set in the deciding leg.

At 4-1 down it was looking like a long way back for Waites in the best of nine sets contest, but he hit back in the sixth set winning 3-1 to trail 4-2 overall.

A tense seventh set was won 3-2 by Waites to trail 4-3 on sets, and he then forced a decider with a 3-0 win in the eighth set.

Waites quickly gained the advantage in the final set with a comfortabl­e first leg win, only to then surrender it as Baetens levelled at 1-1 and then went ahead.

However, Waites managed to force the match into extra sets, drawing level 2-2 – with a two legs winning margin required and duly delivered to book his place in the last four.

German qualifier Michael Unterbuchn­er produced another giant-killing to reach the quarter-finals.

The debutant became the first German to win on the Lakeside oche when beating David Cameron in qualifying and then eliminatin­g third seed Jamie Hughes in the first round.

And the 29-year-old followed that up by taking the scalp of 14th seed Martin Phillips, beating the Welshman 4-2 to set up a last-eight clash with Richard Veenstra.

Unterbuchn­er averaged 88.88, hitting five maximums, and held his nerve to see out the match after Phillips had recovered from 2-0 down to level – Dutchman Veenstra, the 11th seed, cruised into the next round following a 4-0 whwwitewas­h of Geert de

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