Gurney admits he’s “feeling confident” after a tough year on the oche

Daryl Gurney made a perfect start at the World Championships in his second round game against William O’Connor despite surviving a scare on a few occasions from the Irishman.

Gurney is the number 11 seed for the tournament based on his world ranking as he aims to improve on his previous best performance at the event - a quarter-final appearance in 2017. The 34-year-old has failed to get beyond the third round in each of the last three years.

He said: "I've been working so hard at home to prepare for this World Championship," said Gurney after his victory. I needed to put the work in to get myself up to speed because I feel like the standard in the PDC is moving on and I don't want to get left behind.

"I feel so much more confident and my scoring has come back. I've always been a big scorer and I need to be hitting trebles to feel comfortable up there.

"I have been awful recently by my own standards. I knew it would be a tough game today so I'm pleased to get through it."

“I think I pulled some of my darts towards double 12 and I went inside and then I went inside double 6 as well so then it was double 3. I thought I was scoring well enough to give myself a chance for the game and thankfully, that’s how it played out.”

A two-time major winner - having won the World Grand Prix in 2017 and the Players Championship Finals in 2018 - Gurney has struggled to find his best form this season, falling at the first round stage of five tournaments.

His best results of an indifferent season to date have been a semi-final appearance at the UK Open and progressing to the last eight stage of the World Series of Darts Finals.

Reflecting on his 2020, he said: “I think the rest has helped 100%. I feel like the PDC is moving on really quickly now, and it’s slightly leaving me behind so It was important I got as much practice in as possible. I feel so much more confident in myself and my score has come back.

“I have found, at times this year, that my doubles have let me down and my score has just not been there for me but today it was back to standard and I made sure in that last set. I am a hard worker and I had to get down and dirty in the early sets. I feel I have played poorly in my last few TV games and today I felt the belief and I was happy with the way it panned out.”

Gurney will face Chris Dobey in the third round after Christmas and with both players out of form when they meet, he knows it will take a lot of spirit to surpass Dobey.

“It will be a tough game against Chris. I have been watching his games and he’s been going mad on the board with his averages and the short amount of darts it takes him to win games.

“We will both have to find our games and if I start the way I started against William today then I think I’ll be alright. I can’t remember the last time I won on TV so I’m glad to get the win and I was thinking the fact I hadn’t won on TV was going to get the better of me but it didn’t.”