Gerwyn Price and Jonny Clayton set up an all-Welsh tie at the Betfred World Matchplay with opening-night wins in Blackpool on Saturday.<\/p>\n
The World Cup-winning pair will now clash on Tuesday night after breaking their respective losing streaks as the World Matchplay returned to the Winter Gardens.<\/p>\n
World Champion Price had not won in the event since 2016, but came from 2-0 down to defeat Jermaine Wattimena 10-4, checking out 132, 108 and 127 as he pulled clear in the latter stages.<\/p>\n
Premier League Clayton, meanwhile, erased the memory of three previous first round exits by claiming a maiden win in the event with a 10-7 defeat of another Dutchman, Dirk van Duijvenbode.<\/p>\n
The pair’s second round date will be the highlight of Tuesday’s last 16 ties, with Price insisting that their friendship will be forgotten when they step on stage.<\/p>\n
“Jonny’s a great friend of mine but I know if I play my A-game then it doesn’t matter who I play,” said Price. “The only enemy I’ve got up there at the moment is myself.<\/p>\n
“I just concentrate on my own game and if I play well, then I definitely win. I haven’t played much this year and coming into this I’m not very confident.”<\/p>\n
“I started off really slowly and had to fight my way back into the game. I hit some big doubles but I was nowhere near how I can play.<\/p>\n
“I know where I’ve gone wrong in the past but I’m here to win it. If I can win this, the rest of the year is looking good.”<\/p>\n
Clayton settled the better against Van Duijvenbode by opening up a 3-1 lead, only for the debutant to hit back as he followed up a 164 finish in taking a 5-4 lead.<\/p>\n
Clayton then won four legs in a row to pull clear, and maintained that advantage to progress to the last 16 for the first time in the event.<\/p>\n
“My confidence is massive and I’m flying high,” said Clayton. “I know my game is there but I still had that little monkey on my back, and hopefully I can go on and win it now.<\/p>\n
“Dirk is a very good darts player and he wasn’t going to back down because I’m the Premier League champion. I held my nerve and got over that winning line.”<\/p>\n
Looking ahead to his tie with Price, Clayton added: “I’m here to win that trophy. I don’t care if he’s world number one, when we go on that stage we’re enemies.<\/p>\n
“We’re there to do a job and I’m here to pick a trophy up. I’m not here to make up the numbers.”<\/p>\n
Reigning champion Van den Bergh opened the night with a special reception as he lifted the Phil Taylor Trophy on stage ahead of play beginning, and he concluded the action with a 10-5 defeat of Devon Petersen.<\/p>\n
With both players making their Winter Gardens debuts, it was Van den Bergh who held his nerve the best, winning five straight legs from 2-1 down to pull away from the South African.<\/p>\n
“I had goosebumps tonight,” admitted Van den Bergh. “To lift the trophy was an amazing feeling and I loved it, but I still had to do my business later and I did that.<\/p>\n
“Devon wasn’t as strong as he can be and at the end of the game I showed what I’m capable of.<\/p>\n
“I need to take the positives from today but also learn from the negatives. It was a big lesson for me.”<\/p>\n
Van den Bergh’s win sets up a second round tie on Tuesday against Dave Chisnall, who enjoyed his first World Matchplay win since 2018 as he overcame Vincent van der Voort 10-8 in the tournament opener.<\/p>\n
Van der Voort led 2-1 early on, but Chisnall took out 124, 161 and 100 as he moved into a 5-3 advantage, defying a 129 combination from the Dutchman.<\/p>\n
Chisnall also led 7-5 before Van der Voort levelled after 16 legs in a tight contest, but the five-time quarter-finalist took out 76 to break the deadlock and double ten to seal victory.<\/p>\n
“It was amazing to be back in front of fans, absolutely brilliant, and we want that feeling,” said Chisnall. “It was nice to have them back and to win.<\/p>\n
“I was feeling good today. The 161 gave me a lot of confidence but it was a nip and tuck game all the way through.”<\/p>\n
The Betfred World Matchplay continues on Sunday with a double session of first round action at the Winter Gardens.<\/p>\n
Former champions James Wade and Rob Cross take on Luke Humphries and Ross Smith respectively, while two-time semi-finalist Glen Durrant meets debutant Callan Rydz.<\/p>\n
2020 World Champion Peter Wright plays Danny Noppert in the evening session, while Grand Slam of Darts champion Jose de Sousa takes on Gabriel Clemens.<\/p>\n
2021 Betfred World Matchplay Sunday July 18 Evening Session (1930 BST) Gerwyn Price and Jonny Clayton set up an all-Welsh tie at the Betfred World Matchplay with opening-night wins in Blackpool…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":3464,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[943,124],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-results"],"lang":"en","translations":{"en":3463,"de":3470},"pll_sync_post":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pdc2.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3463"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pdc2.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pdc2.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pdc2.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pdc2.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3463"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/pdc2.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3463\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3469,"href":"https:\/\/pdc2.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3463\/revisions\/3469"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pdc2.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pdc2.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pdc2.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pdc2.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nSaturday July 17
\nFirst Round<\/strong>
\nDave Chisnall 10-8 Vincent van der Voort
\nJonny Clayton 10-7 Dirk van Duijvenbode
\nGerwyn Price 10-4 Jermaine Wattimena
\nDimitri Van den Bergh 10-5 Devon Petersen<\/p>\n
\nAfternoon Session (1300 BST)
\n4x First Round<\/strong>
\nKrzysztof Ratajski v Brendan Dolan
\nGlen Durrant v Callan Rydz
\nRob Cross v Ross Smith
\nJames Wade v Luke Humphries<\/p>\n
\n4x First Round<\/strong>
\nJoe Cullen v Chris Dobey
\nMichael Smith v Ryan Searle
\nPeter Wright v Danny Noppert
\nJose de Sousa v Gabriel Clemens<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"