Dimitri Van den Bergh laid down a marker to his title rivals on Day Three of the Cazoo World Darts Championship.
Van den Bergh produced the highest average and highest checkout of the tournament so far in a 3-0 whitewash of Lourence Ilagan late on Saturday night at Alexandra Palace.
Former World Matchplay champion Van den Bergh averaged 97.20, dropping just two legs in a comprehensive victory which was sealed with a 164 checkout.
“I feel comfortable playing on the Ally Pally stage, even though I haven’t always got the results,” said Van den Bergh, who was dumped out in his opening game of last year’s event.
“I knew I was playing well but I made the mistake of looking at my set-by-set averages during the game.
“I’m pleased with how I played, but there is so much more to come from me.
“I’m on the up, I’m happy with my new darts. Today is a good start, hopefully the start of something special.”
Sunday will see another double session take place, with two-time World Champion Adrian Lewis’ meeting with Damon Heta headlining the afternoon action.
Two-time World Championship semi-finalist Nathan Aspinall will begin his campaign against Boris Krcmar in the evening session.
The Cazoo World Darts Championship is being broadcast live on Sky Sports in the UK & Ireland, through the PDC’s worldwide broadcast partners including DAZN and Viaplay, and on PDCTV (excluding UK, Ireland, Germany, Austria & Switzerland based subscribers).
Saturday December 17
Afternoon Session (1100 GMT)
3x First Round, 1x Second Round
Martin Lukeman 3-0 Nobuhiro Yamamoto (3-0, 3-1, 3-2) (R1)
Simon Whitlock 3-2 Christian Perez (3-0, 2-3, 3-2, 0-3, 3-1) (R1)
Adam Gawlas 3-2 Richie Burnett (3-0, 0-3, 1-3, 3-1, 3-1) (R1)
Alan Soutar 3-0 Daryl Gurney (3-2, 3-2, 3-2) (R2)
Evening Session (2000 GMT)
3x First Round, 1x Second Round
Ryan Meikle 3-2 Lisa Ashton (3-1, 3-2, 2-3, 2-3, 3-0) (R1)
Cameron Menzies 3-1 Diogo Portela (3-1, 1-3, 3-1, 3-1) (R1)
Josh Rock 3-1 Jose Justicia (3-1, 1-3, 3-1, 3-0) (R1)
Dimitri Van den Bergh 3-0 Lourence Ilagan (3-0, 3-2, 3-0) (R2)
—–ENDS—-
Images: Taylor Lanning/PDC
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