Delightful De Graaf leads for Sweden with 120.43 individual average as fabulous France down Latvia at World Cup of Darts

The World Cup of Darts has began with victories early doors for Sweden, Czech Republic, France and Croatia as the big names wait to enter the fray both later tonight and tomorrow in Frankfurt.

Opening up the tournament, the Sweden duo of Jeffrey de Graaf who now represents the country and Oskar Lukasiak laid down a marker against a helpless Spanish duo of Jesus Noguera and Jose Justicia.

De Graaf in particular averaged over 120 individually as he led from the front for his side in Group K. As a team, they hit a 100 and 90 checkout to breeze through 4-0. This contributed to an overall average of 98.56 from the team with both in the team also being rock solid on the outer ring. But it was the marvellous scoring of De Graaf that really set them on their course to victory.

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Also very impressive were the fabulous French duo of Thibault Tricole and Jacques Labre. It was utterly clinical from the team with Madars Razma who teamed with Valters Melderis for the first time being lauded on upset watch prior to the match. Melderis perhaps is his best partner yet with experience in the WDF system.

But it was Labre and Tricole who are both Tour Card holders in their own right who strutted their stuff. They averaged 90, but it was the slew of checkouts that impressed most. They hit combo finishes of 95, 93 and 80 en route to sealing the win with both Labre and Tricole playing their part in a supreme victory. They seal first honours in Group J.

Malaysia were making their first appearance at the World Cup of Darts in over a decade and in reality, it was a miserable return for Mohd Bin Jantan and Siik Hwang Wong. They were well beaten by Croatian pairing led by Boris Krcmar and also featuring Romeo Grbavac. They wrapped up an emphatic whitewash win over the Malaysians with a 12-dart leg as Krcmar set up his partner to produce the goods and fire them to victory.

While perhaps the least entertaining clash of the night in terms of the manner of victory or quality came in Czech Republic pairing Adam Gawlas and Karel Sedlacek just about finding their way past Bahrain. Duda Durra and Basem Mahmood were teaming for the first time with the latter impressing last year.

But the Group H affair saw Gawlas and Sedlacek struggle despite being the favourites not only in their match but also the group with Iceland also in the same group. Durra in particular produced a moment of quality with Czech Republic's doubling woes allowing him in for a 95 checkout to remember. In fact they didn't miss a dart at double in narrowly missing out as Gawlas and Sedlacek will feel very lucky to have won through their opener.