Luke Humphries shrugged off a sluggish begin to his PDC world darts championship marketing campaign regardless of a 3-0 win over Lee Evans at Alexandra Palace.
Humphries, the third seed, is seen as one of many strongest contenders for the title after total wins on the World Grand Prix, Grand Slam of Darts and Players Championship Finals in current months.
But he admitted he had been let off the hook by Evans, who hit a 170 checkout within the second set but hit solely 5 of 24 checkouts. Humphries advised Sky Sports: “I was not at my best but the most important thing is it felt good, and the first game is always the toughest.
“I am through to the next round and I won’t play the same in the next round. I am not disappointed because I won 3-0 which is what I wanted. I feel like that is the hardest game in the whole tournament to get through, so I’m happy and in the next game I will be so much better than that.”
There was no repeat efficiency for Fallon Sherrock 4 years after she made historical past by beating Ted Evetts to turn out to be the primary lady to win a match on the championship. Sherrock took the primary set towards Jermaine Wattimena, making his tenth look within the match, but fell away badly and misplaced the following three units.
Sherrock stated afterwards: “Obviously, I’m gutted with the result. I had spells when I played well tonight but I missed chances at key moments and they cost me. Full credit to Jermaine, he was the better player on the night and he punished me when I missed chances.”
Jim Williams shrugged off a mathematical blunder to whitewash Guyana’s Norman Madhoo and cruise into the second spherical. Williams posted no rating within the first leg of the third set when he wrongly checked out on 70 relatively than his required 68 but nonetheless recovered to win all 9 legs in a snug 3-0 victory. The Welshman, who was the runner-up within the ultimate BDO match in 2020, will subsequent face the previous champion Peter Wright within the second spherical on Wednesday.
Matt Campbell claimed his first victory on the Alexandra Palace stage after surviving a gutsy comeback from Lourence Ilagan to clinch a 3-2 win. Campbell eased by way of the primary two units but missed double 5 to seal a 3-0 win and as a substitute Ilagan checked out on 100 to take the set and extend the match.
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Another three-figure checkout allowed Ilagan to degree the match, but Campbell got here on robust within the deciding set, profitable all three legs in a row and ending with a flourish as he took the match with a 128 checkout.
Ricky Evans beat Simon Adams 3-0 whereas, within the solitary second-round match performed on Sunday afternoon, Joe Cullen, the 14th seed, proved too robust for Darren Penhall as he additionally racked up a 3-0 win. Also in Sunday’s late motion, Florian Hempel got here again from behind to beat the younger Irishman Dylan Slevin 3-1, whereas Niels Zonneveld beat Darren Webster by the identical rating.
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