Van den Bergh survives Engström scare, Clayton through in whitewash against home hero Springborg Poulsen

Dimitri van den Bergh and Jonny Clayton are successfully through the opening round of the Nordic Darts Masters as the World Series returns with the opening leg in Copenhagen.

It was two contrasting wins though with Van den Bergh falling over the line on his seventh match dart in a tough test against Swedish ace, Johan Engström 6-4.

To begin the tie, he missed a 170 checkout on the bull but tied it up with both having early holds of throw. The former went 3-1 up though with the first 180 of the match and double 20.

Engstrom kept himself in there with a 111 checkout to make it 3-2 before Van den Bergh regained a two leg cushion at 4-2.

The Swede drifted into the wrong bed going for 154 hitting double five instead of double 20 but three missed darts gave him a lifeline which he took on double 10 to make it 4-3.

Van den Bergh couldn't make a dent into 130 and Engstrom returned for 120 to break and make it 4-4.

The former World Matchplay champion broke back immediately though and was throwing for the match.

Engstrom couldn't get a shot at 150 but despite getting multiple opportunities after match darts went begging, the Swede couldn't force a decider and Van den Bergh finally got over the line.

While for Clayton, it was a lot more convincing with 'The Ferret' diminishing home hopes with a whitewash win over Ivan Springborg Poulsen.

Poulsen came on to a raptuous applause from the crowd but he was outplayed by a brilliant Premier League champion who averaged 99.1 with 54% on the doubles and a high checkout of 161.

He was convincing from the very start breezing through the opening leg despite the crowd being heavily behind the home hero and he took a break from there on double 10 to make it 2-0.

He went from convincing to sublime as he smashed in a 161 checkout to go 4-0 up and was up at around a 100 average as he went one away before securing the whitewash.