Derry's Daryl 'The Dude' Gurney set up a second round clash with world champion Gary Anderson at the 2016 PDC World Darts Championships.
The 29-year-old cruised through his opening match at London’s Alexandra Palace on Thursday night, though he faces a far stiffer test in the next round.
Gurney won the first set against Wales' Jamie Lewis and after dropping the second he ran out an easy 3-1 winner.
The Northern Irishman has been steadily climbing the world rankings and he is confident that he can make a big impression on the game.
“That first set I played proper darts and that’s the way I really am playing these days,” he said.
“Then for some reason I let him back into that second set. If I could take my practice board up to the main stage and on the pro tours I could mix it with the top ones, but that’s all hearsay.
“I’ve tried to improve every little part of my game brick-by-brick and hopefully in the next year or two I’ll start climbing to the top 32, top 16. Rome wasn’t built in a day.”
World champion Anderson, who has struggled to find his best form since taking title for the first time in January, had no problems against qualifier Andy Boulton in his first round tie.
He showed glimpses of his best form as he raced to a 3-0 win and is now looking forward to taking on Gurney.
"I've never been so nervous. I always get nervous when I got to play darts, but the first night made it so much harder," said Anderson.
"Daryl has been playing well the last six months, so it'll be a good game."
Earlier in the night, Boulton had beaten Per Laursen 2-1 in their preliminary round tie to set up the clash with the champion.
Elsewhere in the first round, the flamboyant Peter ‘Snakebite’ Wright, above,sporting Christmas-themed hair and beard, saw off the challenge of Keegan Brown 3-0.
Wright averaged an impressive 95.91 and - although he squandered a double eight to give Brown some hope in the final set - he soon wrapped up a routine win.
The 45-year-old Scot explained afterwards that he frequently offers advice to Brown and said it just was not his opponent's night.
"It would have been a lot better game if he'd hit his doubles," he said. "He's a fantastic player but it didn't happen for him today and I got away with it and I took it."
