The first round is well underway at the seventeenth Players Championship tournament in Milton Keynes this afternoon. The first reward results are already coming through.
Familiar names such as Dave Chisnall, Ross Smith, Damon Heta and Gerwyn Price also managed to survive the first shuffle. Jonny Clayton was the only player from the top-16 seedings to be eliminated. He went down 6-1 against Florian Hempel.
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Elsewhere, Danny Noppert and Andy Baetens were involved in a real tussle. After seven legs Baetens still held a 4-3 lead, but Noppert then held his own leg and then broke the Belgian with a 13-darter in the ninth leg. With a 12-darter, Noppert then finished the job.
Stephen Bunting defeated Vincent Van der Voort, while Gary Anderson sailed past Christian Kist. Jitse van der Wal and Jeffrey de Zwaan lost 6-5 to Martin Schindler and Steve Beaton, respectively. Jelle Klaasen lost 6-4 to Graham Hall and Jurjen van der Velde was floored 6-4 by Ricardo Pietreczko.
Dimitri van den Bergh ensured the first Belgian success at Players Championship 17 by beating Robert Owen 6-1, with both Rob Cross and Chris Dobey also progressing.