Former world champion Gary Anderson has struggled to reach the third round of the Darts World Championship.
On his 52nd birthday, the Scot beat Latvian Madars Razma 3-1 on Thursday.
Especially in the third set, “The Flying Scotsman”, as Anderson is called, had a lot of trouble and was only lucky to avert a 1:2 deficit.
After that, the veteran, who had a bye in round one, came up trumps.
In round three, Anderson expects the winner of the game Chris Dobey (England) and Martijn Kleermaker (Netherlands).
Anderson had won the most important tournament of 2015 and 2016.
The Austrian darts pro Mensur Suljovic also mastered his opening hurdle at the tournament in London without any problems.
In his two-round match against Belgian Mike de Decker, the 50-year-old, who is seeded 30th, won 3-0 sets.
The top favorite and three-time world champion Michael van Gerwen (Netherlands) is now waiting in round three on December 28th.
For the German Primus Gabriel Clemens, however, the third round is surprisingly not against England's top player James Wade.
The former European champions lost 3-2 to Jim Williams of Wales on Thursday.
Clemens will start the third round as a favorite against Williams and could make it into the round of 16 for the second time after 2021.