NORTHERN IRELAND’S JOSH Rock won on his debut at the Alexandra Palace as he defeated Jose Justicia in the PDC World Darts Championship.
The 21-year-old and world youth champion overcame his Spanish opponent 3-1 in a tricky first-round match where he won the opening set before Justicia took the second to level proceedings.
Rock took control again in the third set to help him on his way to the next round where he will face England’s Callan Rydz.
Former finalist Simon Whitlock survived a major scare to reach the second round of the competition while Lisa Ashton suffered a narrow loss.
Whitlock, the runner-up 13 years ago, battled to a 3-2 victory over Christian Perez of the Philippines at Alexandra Palace.
Perez twice fought back from a set down and had chances in the decider but missed nine darts at double with the final set tied at 1-1.
“That was a real battle, Christian played really well and it could’ve gone either way,” Whitlock said on pdc.tv. “I think I stayed calm, used my experience and just got lucky really.”
Four-time women’s world champion Ashton was bidding for her first victory on her fourth appearance on darts’ biggest stage and threatened a sensational comeback against Ryan Meikle.
But, having recovered from 2-0 down to level the match, Ashton was unable to maintain her momentum in the decider as Meikle claimed a 3-2 victory.
Daryl Gurney became the first seeded player to go out of the tournament, losing 3-0 to Alan Soutar in the second round, while Adam Gawlas defeated Richie Burnett 3-2 and Martin Lukeman was a 3-0 winner over Nobuhiro Yamamoto.
In the evening session, Scot Cameron Menzies held his nerve to see off Brazilian Diogo Portela 3-1.
Dimitri van den Bergh defeated former World Masters semifinalist Lourence Ilagan 3-0.
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