Van Gerwen enjoys comfortable opening victory

Michael van Gerwen enjoyed a comfortable 3-0 victory over English debutant James Hurrell in his opening match of the PDC World Darts Championship.

The three-time world champion has had a tough year by his standards, having fallen behind Luke Littler and Luke Humphries, so a relatively stress-free opening match at Alexandra Palace was just what was needed.

Hurrell, 40, offered some resistance early on when taking the opening leg of the match, but he would win just two more as Van Gerwen proved far too strong.

The third-seeded Dutchman averaged 94.85, took out two three-figure checkouts and hit 50% of his doubles - with six of his nine misses coming in one scrappy leg.

Van Gerwen, 35, will now face either Brendan Dolan or Lok Yin Lee in the third round.

"I think I played OK," Van Gerwen told Sky Sports after his match. "Of course, I was a bit nervous. Like everyone knows it's been a tough year for me.

"Overall, it was a good performance. I was confident. I won the game, that's the main thing."

Also on Friday night, Germany's Florian Hempel showed why he loves playing on the Alexandra Palace stage with a thrilling 3-1 victory in a high-quality contest against Jeffrey de Zwaan.

Both men hit seven 180s in a match played at a fast and furious pace, but 34-year-old Hempel's superior doubles gave him a fourth straight first-round victory in the competition.

Hempel moves on to a tie with 26th seed Daryl Gurney but it was a damaging loss for De Zwaan, 28, who came through a late qualifier in November and needed a good run here to keep his PDC tour card for next season.

Mickey Mansell earned a third-round date with world number seven Jonny Clayton after a scrappy 3-1 win over Japan's Tomoya Goto, while Dylan Slevin came through an all-Irish tie against William O'Connor to progress to a second-round meeting with Dimitri van den Bergh.

In the afternoon session, Stephen Bunting came from behind to beat Kai Gotthardt 3-1 and book his place in the third round.

Englishman Bunting, ranked eighth in the world, dropped the first set and almost went 2-0 down in the match before staging an impressive recovery.

Tournament debutant Gotthardt missed three darts at double eight to win the second set, allowing Bunting to take out double 10 to level the match before powering away to victory by winning the third and fourth sets without losing a leg.

Victory for "The Bullet" sets up a last 32 meeting with the winner of Dirk van Duijvenbode's meeting with Madars Razma after Christmas.

Should Bunting progress further, he would face world number one and defending world champion Luke Humphries in the quarter-finals on New Year's Day.

Elsewhere in Friday afternoon's session, the Dutch duo of Alexander Merkx and Wessel Nijman advanced to the second round with wins over Stephen Burton and Cameron Carolissen respectively.

England's Ian White was handed a walkover victory against Sandro Eric Sosing of the Philippines.

Sosing withdrew from the competition on medical grounds and was taken to hospital following chest pains.

First round

Stephen Burton 0-3 Alexander Merkx

Wessel Nijman 3-2 Cameron Carolissen

Ian White w/o Sandro Eric Sosing (Sosing withdrew on medical grounds)

Second round

Stephen Bunting 3-1 Kai Gotthardt

First round

Mickey Mansell 3-1 Tomoya Goto

Florian Hempel 3-1 Jeffrey de Zwaan

William O'Connor 1-3 Dylan Slevin

Second round

Michael van Gerwen 3-0 James Hurrell

All times GMT

Afternoon Session (12:30)

First round

Karel Sedlacek v Rhys Griffin

Richard Veenstra v Alexis Toylo

Second round

Brendan Dolan v Lok Yin Lee

Chris Dobey v Alexander Merkx

Evening Session (19:00)

Second round

Danny Noppert v Ryan Joyce

Raymond van Barneveld v Nick Kenny

Luke Littler v Ryan Meikle

Damon Heta v Connor Scutt