Fifth seed Daryl Gurney shook off early double trouble to beat Ross Smith 3-0 and book his place in the third round of the PDC World Darts Championship at the Alexandra Palace.
Northern Irishman Gurney appeared on course to take the opening set 3-0 before missing eight darts at a finish as Smith recovered to level at 2-2, only to see Gurney then hit double 12.
Both men again struggled on finishes in the second set, but Gurney eventually started to find his range to move within a set of victory, which he closed out after another maximum in the deciding leg to record a 100.3 match average.
IMPRESSIVE STUFF FROM GURNEY | Superchin is into round three with a confident 100+ average win over Ross Smith#WHDarts pic.twitter.com/DYXyL2Y1CJ
— PDC Darts (@OfficialPDC) December 18, 2018
Gurney admitted his finishing had initially lacked quality. He said on the PDC Twitter feed: “The doubles were shabby, I knew the trebles were going in.
“There have been so many 2-0s where people have been coming back, and I made sure I was not going to let that happen in the third set. I wanted to kill the game there and then.”
Gurney will play Welshman Jamie Lewis, beaten by Phil Taylor in the 2018 semi-finals, for a place in the last 16 on Saturday evening.
WINNER!
Daryl Gurney beats Ross Smith 3-0 to book his place in the Third Round. An excellent performance for the Northern Irishman. #WHDarts pic.twitter.com/1tZyNzCHHW
— PDC Darts (@OfficialPDC) December 18, 2018
“It is one game at a time, and I will give it my all, hopefully I can still be here at the very end,” he added.
Earlier, Dutchman Vincent Van Der Voort had also secured safe passage into round three with a 3-0 win over England’s Darren Webster, the 13th seed.
The two-time quarter-finalist dropped just one leg, in the opening set, and finished with back-to-back 15-darters which secured a match against either Steve Beaton or Chris Dobey.
Austrian Rowby-John Rodriguez put out Ricky Evans by the same 3-1 scoreline, to record a first victory on the Alexandra Palace stage.
Japan’s Seigo Asada produced a stunning comeback to beat Poland’s Krzysztof Ratajski 3-2 having lost the first two sets.
Tuesday’s evening session had opened with Ireland’s Steve Lennon defeating Australian James Bailey 3-0 in their first-round match, and he will next face Alan Norris.
Dutch thrower Ron Meulenkamp recovered from 2-0 down to beat Brazilian Diogo Portela, who had hit an 11-dart leg in the opening set.
Belgian Dimitri Van Den Bergh, the world number 35, ran out a 3-0 winner over American Chuck Puleo, which saw him hit a 144 check-out during the final set. He will take on Welshman Jonny Clayton in round two.
