Phil Taylor and Adrian Lewis make winning start at World Cup of Darts
Monday 2 November 2020 12:22, UK
Phil Taylor and Adrian Lewis made a winning start to their World Cup of Darts campaign with a 5-0 whitewash against Per Laursen and Per Skau from Denmark.
Taylor and Lewis, who are looking to win the tournament for a third time, were impressive as they stormed through with an 87 three-dart average.
"It was a slow start for us but when we click, we're going to click," Taylor told Sky Sports 1 HD. "Aidy put the pressure on me before the tournament because he has just bought a brand new trophy cabinet."
They will meet 16th seeds Japan in the second round after Morihiro Hashimoto and Haruki Muramatsu wrapped up a 5-0 win against Chinese duo Jun Chen and Xuejie Huang.
There were no shocks on the opening night as all the seeded teams went through to the last-16 at the Eissporthalle in Frankfurt.
Brothers in arms
Former runners-up Kim and Ronny Huybrechts crushed Philippines 5-1 with Kim taking out an impressive 129 checkout in the opening leg and brother Ronnie landing a 139 to win it.
They will take on Spain in the next round after they opened the night with a 5-0 whitewash of Norway. The team of Cristo Reyes and Antonio Alcina raced away from Robert Wagner and Vegar Elvevoll.
"I'm feeling very confident in the singles, but when I'm playing with Ronny, I'm even more confident," said Kim Huybrechts. "When we go into the doubles I don't think anybody can beat us."
India's Ashfaque Sayed and Nitin Kumar were out of their depth suffering a 5-0 trouncing against hosts Germany.
Debutant Max Hopp and Jyhan Artut secured a comfortable victory to set up a mouth-watering clash with neighbours Austria.
Artut said: "It gave me a confidence boost for Max to allow me to throw first. I hope we can go much further."
Mensur Suljovic and highly-talented Rowby-John Rodriguez were made to work hard as the Austrians came through against the Czech Republic 5-2.
Gibraltar joy
Former finalists Simon Whitlock and Paul Nicholson overcame Roman Obukhov and Alexey Kadochnikov from Russia 5-1.
The Australian pairing next face surprise package Gibraltar who recorded their first ever victory at the tournament at the fourth attempt.
Dyson Parody and Manuel Vilerio sealed a famous 5-2 victory against Daniele Petri and Marco Bretagani from Italy.
