Gary Anderson looked 'a million dollars' at the World Darts Championship, says Wayne Mardle
Friday 18 December 2015 12:19, UK
Gary Anderson’s first dart of the World Darts Championship steered him to a confident win on Thursday night, says Wayne Mardle.
The defending champion brushed off any nerves by sweeping aside Andy Boulton in a 3-0 victory at Alexandra Palace, the scene of his greatest achievement in last year's final.
A maximum with his first three throws of the evening sent the crowd into delirium but, according to Mardle, will have relaxed Anderson.
The first dart was in the top of the 60, with that comes the 180 - an 11-darter first leg and he looked a million dollars.
"You can be put off by your very first dart," the Sky Sports expert said. "You have a bad shot, when you're nervous, it can prey on your mind. You can lose confidence through it.
"But the first dart was in the top of the 60, with that comes the 180 - an 11-darter first leg and he looked a million dollars.
"The 180 settled him completely. It looked like one of those matches before where, if he had played poorly, you would have expected that."
And Mardle believes the 3-0 scoreline has erased the notion that Anderson, in his first match defending the world title, could be given a rocky ride by the game Boulton.
He paid tribute to Anderson for keeping his cool and insists that sustaining that level of performance could result in back-to-back world titles.
"People thought he was going to under-perform so I'm glad he played well," Mardle said. "A 99 average - if he plays like that all the way through he can win it.
"His average last year to win it was 99 so that's the kind of performance, match-in and match-out, that he is going to need.
"Boulton never troubled him apart from in the last set but Gary held it together. I thought it was a really good performance and one that you would expect from a world champion."
The Scottish thrower's potential route to the final appears to be a tricky one, with the likes of James Wade, Phil Taylor and Michael van Gerwen lying in wait, but Mardle says he can emulate last year's heroics having negotiated a similarly daunting path to the title.
He said: "It looks an horrendous journey through but it doesn't matter, it really doesn't. Look at the players he had to beat last year. Quarter-final was Peter Wright, semi-final was Michael van Gerwen and the final was Phil Taylor.
"We're saying 'it's tough, it's tough' but if you're going to win the World Championship then you've got to beat these players. He is the world champion and he played like it. They've got to take it off him, he won't give it to them."
You can watch the PDC World Darts Championship live on Sky Sports between December 17-January 3.
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