Brendan Dolan has booked his place in the second round of the PDC World Darts Championship
Brendan Dolan enjoyed the first whitewash of the William Hill World Darts Championship as he won nine straight legs to overcome South African Masters champion Nolan Arendse 3-0.
Arendse, on his World Championship debut, had enjoyed a strong performance as he won 4-0 in his preliminary round clash with Hong Kong’s Alex Hon, but was unable to upset the Fermanagh ace, who averaged over 90 and hit almost half of his attempts at doubles.
After a scrappy first leg, Dolan took out 80 to go two legs up and then followed it up with a 13-darter to seal the set with the minimum of fuss.
Dolan hit his first 180 of the match at the start of the second set and then finished 108 to keep the momentum going, following up with double eight in the second and double 16 in the next as Arendse was left stranded on tops in successive legs.
Dolan finished double ten to claim the opening leg of set three, landed a 180 in the next and double 16 to sealing the whitewash win and set up a second round clash with Michael Smith.
“It wasn’t as fluent as I wanted it to be but I did enough to get the job done,” said Dolan. “I knew I had to start strongly and bully him so he couldn’t bully me.
“That’s what I did – I started strongly and hit a few doubles to get ahead and I stayed there. Nolan played well in his preliminary round match so I didn’t want him to get going as I know he is a good player.”
The preliminary and first rounds conclude on Tuesday. Dolan’s second round clash with Smith will take place on Monday, December 29th.