King laments 2022 form after surviving Baggish comeback: "My year has been absolute crap"

Mervyn King had to use all of his experience to survive a Danny Baggish comeback and secure his spot in round 3 at the PDC World Darts Championship with a 3-2 win. "Could've won in 3 sets, could've won 4 but won in 5 so that's good enough."

"I'm just pleased to get through," says a relieved King post-match. "I made it a lot harder than it should have been but there you go, it's nice to get over the line." After reaching the quarter-finals last year King has had an admittedly disappointing year in 2023.

Reflecting on a tough year, King is downbeat. "My year has been absolute crap," he says. "I've been trying my backside off and getting nowhere, not playing well." In King's opinion, the poor run of form he's had stems from last year's World Championship run. "A lot of early games here, first in the afternoon repeatedly and it just kills you," he explains. "Hence the reason I didn't play at all really against James Wade last year in the quarter-final."

Looking to the future, King is facing Rob Cross or Scott Williams in round 3. So despite all the doom and gloom does 2009 semi-finalist back himself to have another good run in this year's event? "Not the way I'm playing at the moment," King admits. "But if I can up my game then there's no reason why I can't go a lot further in this tournament and if it keeps getting better every time I play then there's no reason why I can't win it."