Gerwyn Price began his quest for a second World Darts Championship title with a 3-1 victory over Luke Woodhouse at Alexandra Palace.
The current world No 1 had to battle back from a set down after his stuttering start, but soon showed his darting quality as he ran out the comfortable winner to take his place in the last 32.
Woodhouse, who has already beaten Price on three previous occasions, raced into a set lead with a 104.95 average and punished the Welshman for his early misfiring arrows at the double.
The 37-year-old from Cardiff appeared to grow frustrated with his performance as Woodhouse continued to toil away and took the second set to a deciding leg, but the Iceman kept his cool to dispatch double 12 for an 83 checkout and level the scores heading into the second interval.
Price switched into gear in the third set and despite missing more doubles, he took a set lead, as Woodhouse seemingly became heated about his own declining performance.
The 2021 world champion was not to be denied and cruised through the third set with three straight legs including a game-high 150 finish which was applauded by his English counterpart. He will face either Ryan Meikle or five-time world champion Raymond Van Barneveld in round three.
Ritchie Edhouse missed six match darts while Canadian David Cameron reeled off seven straight legs as he came from behind to advance through to the second round with a 3-2 victory.
Debutant Danny Van Trijp dumped out veteran Steve Beaton with ease as he strolled to a 3-0 win, throwing four 180s and an average of 87 on his first appearance at the Ally Pally.
Leonard Gates came from behind to defeat Geert Nentjes in the first game of the evening and will play Stephen Bunting in the last 64 stage next time around.
In the afternoon session, there were wins for Andrew Gilding, Danny Jansen and Lewy Williams while Jose de Sousa came out on top in a five-set thriller with Simon Whitlock.
