"I was trying to tell the crowd to be quiet whilst he was throwing" - Chris Dobey benefits from hostile Amsterdam reception for Dimitri Van den Bergh at World Series Finals

Chris Dobey kept his hopes of another major success alive with victory over Dimitri Van den Bergh in the first round of the 2024 World Series of Darts Finals. 'Hollywood' survived five match darts, but eventually won 6-5 and will now take on Boris Krcmar in round two.

With the score at 5-4 to the Belgian, Van den Bergh had no less than five match darts to decide the contest. However, the Belgian missed all of them and in turn, allowed Dobey to take advantage to get back to level terms at 5-5. In the final leg, the former Masters champion then threw a stunning 132 finish to seal the victory in sumptous style.

"I knew it (the 132) had to go," Dobey reflects afterwards in conversation with Online Darts. "It's a funny old game darts, and yeah, I'm just happy to still be here!"

Dobey realizes though, he more than likely needs to up his level in the next round if he is to move closer to the World Series of Darts Finals title. "My scoring wasn't there. I struggled to find it and there were just so many 57s 59s 60s," he assesses honestly. "But long as been finishing was there, I was just happy to be on the right side of that."

"I think we both got lost with the crowd you know. I was trying to be respectful and tell the crowd to be quiet whilst he was throwing," Dobey concludes, referencing the hostile welcome Van den Bergh recieved in Amsterdam. "It's not nice to play in situations like that. We've had it a few times playing in Germany against the locals but yeah, I just wanted a nice fair game. Unfortunately for Dimitri the crowd probably lost it for him."

In the next round, Dobey will take on Boris Krcmar, who somewhat surprisingly won 6-4 over Stephen Bunting in the first round. The match between Dobey and Krcmar is scheduled for the Saturday evening session.