The opening night of the 2013 World Darts Championships kicked off in dramatic fashion. The reigning World Champion, Adrian Lewis survived a tough test against 22-year old Dutchman, Gino Vos. Vos burst onto the stage and took the opening set without conceding. Like last year, Lewis was shocking to begin with but managed to level the second set with a 3-1 win.
Vos continued to perform out of his skin and missed two darts at the double to take the third set without conceding again. That seemed to be the wake up call Lewis needed. A 108-checkout levelled the set before taking a 2-1 lead in the match. A 120-checkout from Lewis kick started the fourth set before he eventually took it 3-1 to stumble into the second round.
The UK Open champion, Robert Thornton, cruised into the second round with a convincing victory over Sweden's Magnus Caris. The Scot started the night with a 150-checkout that led to a 3-0 first set win. Caris did manage to take the opening leg of the second set, but Thornton retaliated with three straight legs to make it 2-0. Thornton then concluded the match with checkouts of 150 and 130 to make a statement.
Paul Nicholson also progresses into the second round with a 3-0 victory. The Asset faced Holland's Co Stompe and the out of sorts Dutchman continued his poor form. A 106-checkout from put Nicholson 2-1 ahead in the first set before finishing it off in the next leg.
Stompe did take the opening leg of the second set, but Nicholson responded to win the set 3-1 and take a 2-0 lead. With that, Stompe was crushed and Nicholson took the final set without conceding to also make it through.
Hong Kong's Leung Chun Nam surprised the masses as he beat Germany's Andree Welge in the night's preliminary match. Leung took the first two legs before Welge posted on the board. But the Hong Kong continued his fantastic performance and won the match 4-1 to place him in the first round.
Kevin Painter would be Leung's first round opponent later on and the Artist proved to be too powerful despite another good performance from the Asian. Painter kicked the match off with a 160-checkout before Leung did level the set. But Painter would take the following two legs to win the set 3-1.
It was the same story in the second set, Leung equalising before Painter took it 3-1 to double his advantage. Leung's persistence was finally broken as Painter cruised to a 3-0 third set victory to seal his comfortable passage into the second round.
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