Luke Humphries shrugged off a sluggish start to his PDC World Darts Championship campaign despite a 3-0 win over Lee Evans at Alexandra Palace.
Third seed Humphries is seen as one of the strongest contenders for the title after overall wins at the World Grand Prix, Grand Slam of Darts and Players Championship Finals in recent months.
But he admitted he had been let off the hook by Evans, who hit a 170 check-out in the second set but hit only five of 24 checkouts.
Fallon Sherrock fell to a disappointing defeat at Alexandra Palace (Zac Goodwin/PA)
Humphries told 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 performance for Fallon Sherrock four years after she made history by beating Ted Evetts to become the first woman to win a match at the championship.
Fallon Sherrock was beaten by Jermaine Wattimena (Zac Goodwin/PA)
Sherrock took the first set against opponent Jermaine Wattimena, making his 10th appearance in the tournament, but fell away badly and lost the next three sets.
Sherrock admitted: “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 round.
Williams posted no score in the first leg of the third set when he wrongly checked out on 70 rather than his required 68 but still recovered to win all nine legs in a comfortable 3-0 victory.
The Welshman, who was the runner-up in the final BDO tournament in 2020, will next face former champion Peter Wright in the second round on Wednesday.
Straight sets wins for Evans, Williams and Cullen ✅
hard fought victory for Matt Campbell 💪
An entertaining afternoon at Ally Pally, with a juicy session to come this evening… 👏 pic.twitter.com/IIonfynRNa
— PDC Darts (@OfficialPDC) December 17, 2023
Matt Campbell claimed his first win on the Alexandra Palace stage after surviving a gutsy comeback from Lourence Ilagan to clinch a 3-2 win.
Campbell eased through the first two sets but missed double five to seal a 3-0 win and instead Ilagan checked out on 100 to take the set and prolong the match.
Another three-figure check-out saw Ilagan level the match, but Campbell came on strong in the deciding set, winning all three legs in a row, finishing with a flourish as he took the match with a 128 check-out.
Ricky Evans beat Simon Adams 3-0 while in the solitary second-round match played on Sunday afternoon, 14th seed Joe Cullen proved too strong for Darren Penhall as he also racked up a 3-0 win.
Also in Sunday’s late action, Florian Hempel came back from behind to beat young Irishman Dylan Slevin 3-1, while Niels Zonneveld beat Darren Webster by the same score.
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