"My experience from last year definitely helped" - Jarno Bottenberg dumps out much-fancied Matthew Edgar to get Lakeside campaign off to a flyer

Jarno Bottenberg got off to an excellent start at the 2024 WDF World Championship at Lakeside. The 23-year-old Dutchman defeated Matthew Edgar 2-0 in the opening round and now meets 15th-seeded Scot Ryan Hogarth.

Bottenberg, who made it to the second round at Lakeside last year, before losing 3-0 to Danny Lauby Jr, was not exactly lucky with the draw. This year's Dutch Open winner faced the experienced Edgar, a former PDC Tour Card holder in his opening match. "I'm very happy to take the win," Bottenberg reflected in his post-match interview. "In the first set, the doubling was very good and scoring as well. Second set, I went two up and then I missed a few match darts I think, and he came back to 2-2, but then last leg I won in 18."

"My experience from last year definitely helped me tonight," 'Bottie' continued. "Although Matthew obviously has even more experience. When it became 2-2 in the second set, he was very exuberant toward the crowd, but that didn't bother me, I just knew I had to stay calm and it would be fine."

Bottenberg won the Dutch Open in early February, but barely got into action at the WDF after that. He chose to take his chance with the PDC. "I was mostly active on the Development Tour and the Challenge Tour," he explained. "On the Development Tour I reached the semifinals twice and on the Challenge Tour I reached the quarterfinals once. So I came here with the confidence. Besides, the last few weeks have been going extremely well in practice, I hope I can show that form on the stage this week."