World Grand Prix
Photo: PDC/Lawrence Lustig
“I was a bit nervous, which is really strange, and I know I’ll have to play
better on Thursday.”
Andy Hamilton also came through his tough, short format first round
encounter. The Hammer took out finishes of 96, 118 and 120 in taking
the opening set 3-1, and when he added further checkouts of 96 and
132 in the second set his opponent Kim Huybrechts was left with no
answer.
“I’m really pleased with that,” said Hamilton. “I had to concentrate on
my finishing against Kim because if you give him a chance, he’s a frontrunner and he likes to get on a roll.”
“It’s great to be in the quarter-finals because it’s been a while for me,”
said Anderson. “My game’s coming back and I’ve gone back to just
getting up on stage and trying to throw my darts and enjoy the game.”
Kevin Painter, who would face Hamilton in round two, booked his spot
thanks to a convincing 2-0 victory over Richie Burnett. With Burnett
never really able to get into full flow, the match seemed all to easy for
Painter.
Dave Chisnall booked his place in the second round with a 2-1 victory
over Ian White in a match that proved to be tough for both players.
“It’s good to get through that because Ian’s a good player,” said Chisnall.
“We both started well and scored well, and it came down to finishing in
the end - we let each other in a couple of times.”
The only other encounter of the opening round saw a resurgent Wayne
Jones defeat 2012 runner-up Mervyn King 2-0 .
“Things have been going well for the last four weeks and, after the
past eight months I’ve had, I’m really feeling confident and things are
going well again,”said Jones.
Second Round
Phil Taylor was forced to battle hard as he edged past Paul Nicholson
in the second round. Indeed the sixteen-time World C