Steve Lennon is through to a second round clash with Krzysztof Ratajski on Friday afternoon after seeing off Madars Razma as he looks to revive his fortunes once again at the 2021/22 PDC World Darts Championship.
Lennon was qualifying for all sorts of TV majors before the pandemic but since then hasn't been playing at all to his capabilities and he puts it down to Ireland being restricted more than most in the past few months.
"My year has been kind of up and down up until May this year and then it's kind of been just very bad since then so my aim was just to qualify for this. Once I did, I thought there's nothing to lose, obviously playing Madars wasn't an easy draw but just happy to get through it," said Lennon post match.
"Covid probably didn't help, the long breaks and tournaments. There's no tournaments in Ireland so I'm not really match sharp. There's nothing going on so you're feeling under pressure each time you're coming to the Super Series and then obviously it's five events in one go so you're putting yourself under huge pressure to do well."