Michael Smith has begun his 2023 PDC World Championship campaign with a 3-0 victory over Nathan Rafferty on Friday night.
Smith, a two-time runner-up and the recently-crowned champion at the Grand Slam of Darts, did not lose a leg against the Northern Irishman.
The St Helens thrower hit three 180s and averaged 96.62 on the way to booking his spot in the last 32.
WDF women's world champion Beau Graves produced a valiant on her Alexandra Palace debut before losing out 3-0 to William O'Connor.
WHAT A FINISH THAT IS!
— PDC Darts (@OfficialPDC) December 16, 2022
A remarkable 122 finish from Greaves, pinning D7 for a 1-0 lead in the second set!#WCDarts | R1
📺 https://t.co/37DNuuK5Me pic.twitter.com/796ViR5WDq
The 18-year-old started the opening two sets with 120 and 122 checkouts, but she missed a dart to win each set before watching O'Connor take advantage.
The third session was far more one-sided as Greaves's level dropped off, yet she finished an absorbing contest with an 88.34 average as she suggested that she could become a force in the tournament in the future.
Lourence Ilagan won a game in this tournament at the seventh time of asking as he survived a Rowby-John Rodriguez fightback to win a last-leg decider.
The Filipino thrower opened up a two-set lead, only to see his higher-ranked opponent storm back to look the favourite to prevail, but Ilagan held his nerve to take out 60 for the match.
The showdown between Keegan Brown and Florian Hempel also went to a last-leg decider, Hempel taking it to leave Brown without a PDC Tour Card for 2023.
Brown led 2-1 in sets, each of the sessions going the distance, but Hempel took the fourth and established a lead in the fifth, producing a strong final leg on throw to prevail from a contest which featured 13 180s.
From the afternoon's matches, two-time world champion Adrian Lewis delivered the standout performance as he averaged 93.57 in seeing off Sweden's Daniel Larsson by a 3-0 scoreline.
Darren Plant
