Fallon Sherrock believes she has shown that women can compete with the best male darts players on the planet as her fairytale run at the PDC World Championship came to an end in the third round.

The 25-year-old fell to a 4-2 defeat to Chris Dobey in front of a raucous crowd at Alexandra Palace, with the 22nd seed having to use earplugs in an attempt to drown out the fans roaring their support for his opponent.

Sherrock became the first woman to win a match at the tournament on December 18 when beating Ted Evetts and followed it up with a shock victory over world number 11 Mensur Suljovic.

Meanwhile, defending champion Michael Van Gerwen cruised into the quarter-finals with a 4-0 thrashing of former BDO world champion Stephen Bunting.

After trailing two legs to one in the opening set, Van Gerwen then reeled off five legs in a row to take a 2-0 lead without getting out of second gear against a below-par Bunting.

Van Gerwen then only lost two further legs in wrapping up the match, setting up a last-eight clash with Steve Beaton or the unseeded Darius Labanauskas.

The 30-year-old, who averaged 104.09, said: “I played well in patches, but I need to make sure I do better in the next games because it’s going to be tough enough.”

Two-time world champion Gary Anderson crashed out after suffering a 4-2 defeat to Nathan Aspinall, but third seed Gerwyn Price completed a 4-0 whitewash of John Henderson to set up a last-16 showdown with Simon Whitlock.