Lewis heaped praise on his opponent afterwards saying he has 'a lot of bottle' and is very consistent. A runner-up in 2013, he will hope to go all the way this week with the tournament now wide open.

“It was tough. It wasn’t just the pace he was throwing at. He’s very consistent, and he takes out massive shots. He’s got a lot of bottle he has," said Lewis post match to Online Darts.

He also touched on some advice he received during lockdown from fellow Stoke-on-Trent ace and 16 time World Matchplay champion, Phil Taylor: "Me and Phil go back a long way, but I could win 20 World titles and he’d still say I’m rubbish!"

“I use to practice so hard, me and Phil use to between 8 and 12 hours a day. We were constantly working at it.

Now I’ve cut the hours back to three or hours a day. But sometimes you think to yourself what would he be doing, in this situation if he was struggling. So I referred back to what Phil would always do, practice, practice practice.”

He also discussed this with tournament sponsors Betfred without alluding to what Taylor said: “During Lockdown yeah definitely, he’s tried giving me advice. I’ve took that onboard. I won’t tell you what he said. But now it’s all stations go.”

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