PDC Darts World Championship Day 1: Van Gerwen Given Scare, Newton Upset

It was an exciting first day of the 2015 PDC Darts World Championships, with defending champion Michael van Gerwen being forced to work hard and No. 13 seed Wes Newton being bundled out in the first round.

Van Gerwen's 3-1 win over Joe Cullen will look convincing enough, but it was a case of the scoreboard not telling the full story. Cullen showed his class and forced every set to five legs, often finishing where Van Gerwen could not.

Both men at times showed brilliance. Most memorably at the beginning of the fourth set, Van Gerwen threw seven perfect darts in a row, while Cullen threw five. It was a furious start and was the only time Van Gerwen really got pumped, having just dropped his first set of the match on the previous leg.

But they often struggled to back it up.

Cullen had multiple high-scoring legs which he finished with accuracy, but was unable to make Van Gerwen pay, struggling to hit the trebles on the next leg.

Van Gerwen was similar, although never allowed Cullen to get too far away from him. He threw a series of loose darts throughout the middle of the contest, hitting far more ones and fives than you would expect to see from the man. 

His finishing was hardly clinical, either. While he was not missing most by much, it was only on the double 16 that he really looked comfortable, and he showed hints of frustration at this.

But he did enough. Often the first round can be a banana skin game for the top seeds, particularly in this case as Joe Cullen has for a while been known as a talented, although inconsistent, youngster.

One match later, the first round really was a banana skin for Wes Newton, as the three-time quarter-finalist was bundled out by Cristo Reyes.

Reyes qualified for the match by virtue of a 4-0 victory over Christian Perez in the preliminary round, which only the lowest-rated unseeded players have to compete in. It is not uncommon for this to act as an advantage though.

Not for the first time, the underdog looked relaxed from the get-go in their second appearance of the night, while the favourite was nervy early on. Memorably it was a similar case last year, where New Zealand's Rob Szabo went within one dart of a monumental upset of Phil Taylor.

Reyes shot out to a 2-0 lead. He showed composure and accuracy, finding the treble regularly and finishing where he had the chance.

But Newton came roaring back and the pressure got to Reyes, who began throwing some looser darts. The result was Newton tying the game up at 2-2 to force a fifth set, which went down to the wire.

With the score at 5-5, the match was forced into a sudden-death leg and after Reyes won the all important shoot-out to decide who would go first, the Spaniard went on to win the match.

Earlier in the night, three-time World Champion John Part was beaten 3-2 by up-and-comer Keegan Brown. Part looked flustered and was not showing the consistency of a decade ago, although showed good fight after struggling early on. 

The other match saw a showdown of two former BDO World Champions, in which Jellie Klaasen beat out Christian Kist 3-1.