Smith, Cross, Heta and Van Barneveld through openers at Players Championship 16, Wright and De Sousa dumped out

Michael Smith sealed an opening round win as he looks to continue his excellent form as of late including on the Players Championship series where he took back-to-back titles last time around.

Smith saw off Darius Labanauskas in a hard fought victory to begin proceedings in Niedernhausen averaging 93 in a 6-4 win. While there has also been wins for Damon Heta (6-2 v Max Hopp), Rob Cross (6-3 v. John Michael with a 104 average) and Raymond van Barneveld who averaged 104 in dumping out Jose de Sousa.

Dave Chisnall also dumped out Paulo Ferreira 6-0 with a 107 average, while speaking of dumping out - it is an early defeat for Peter Wright who lost 6-1 to Steve Beaton.

Other wins for Thibault Tricole, Nathan Aspinall, Dirk van Duijvenbode, Dimitri van den Bergh and Chris Dobey early on in Germany.