Dobey eases past Evans, King produces comeback to see off Van den Bergh in thrilling contest

The first two ties of this year's World Grand Prix are complete with Chris Dobey and Mervyn King through after victories over Ricky Evans and Dimitri van den Bergh respectively.

In the tie between Dobey and Evans, both players started magnificently; with them both getting away first dart and going onto hit a 180 and 177 in the leg respectively. Despite that it was 'Rapid' who got to a quick-fire start; which was a confidence booster at this point.

Evans put the pressure on in the next leg getting down to 78; but Dobey finished 90 in clutch style to hold his throw. 'Hollywood' improved his lead gaining a first break of throw; with double eight.

Dobey claimed the first set reeling off a third leg on the spin. He continued that into set two finishing double four to take the opening leg.

Evans stopped the rot with a 13 dart but this was only a consolation as Dobey stormed to the victory in a 2-0 (3-1, 3-1) win to open up the tournament.

In the second tie, Van den Bergh lost the first leg of his contest against King but he soon resolved that with a 112 checkout. King though surrendered the lead in set 1 after missing multiple darts in two separate legs for the first set and Van den Bergh took out 105 to claim it.

This forced disbelief from King who didn't realise he'd lost it and said 'Really?'. Van den Bergh continued his momentum to start the second set but his was wrestled away from him as King produced a 112 checkout to square it up and from there he moved 2-1 up before forcing a deciding set.

Van den Bergh doubled his lead in double quick time to begin the set but King brought himself back into the final set with a 180 and tops to trail 2-1. From there the turning point was a 133 checkout which made it 2-2 and he made no mistake in the following leg to finish a brilliant comeback.

Click here for more information about this tournament, the only one to feature double start on the PDC Tour.

Day One schedule

Ricky Evans (79.08) 0-2 (89.5) Chris Dobey
Mervyn King (88.03) 2-1 (84.95) Dimitri Van den Bergh
20:25 Joe Cullen v Ian White
21:00 Jeffrey de Zwaan v Steve Beaton
21:35 James Wade v John Henderson
22:10 Michael Smith v Simon Whitlock
22:45 Michael van Gerwen v Jamie Hughes
23:20 Gary Anderson v Keegan Brown