PDC World Darts Championship: Michael van Gerwen wins as Colin Lloyd bows out

Michael van Gerwen: Easy winner in round one of the PDC World Darts Championship

Michael van Gerwen cruised through to the second round of the PDC World Darts Championship after a routine 3-0 win over Zoran Lerchbacher.

The second seed gave up just one leg in the process of beating Austrian Lerchbacher, who had earlier beaten Ben Ward 3-1 in the preliminary contest.

Van Gerwen, who will face Kevin McDine next, wasted no time in taking the first set 3-0 before his opponent finally got on the board by hitting double 16 in the opening leg of the second set.

Tuesday's results:

Lloyd 2-3 B Anderson
Lerchbacher 4-1 Ward (P)
Van der Voort 3-1 Clark
Van Gerwen 3-0 Lerchbacher
Whitlock 3-0 R Smith

But the Premier League champion reeled off three straight legs to move two sets to the good and then completed the win with a shutout in the third set, throwing in a 137 finish for good measure.

"I didn't play well at all but a win is a win," van Gerwen told Sky Sports.

"Look at Phil Taylor: he didn't play well at the beginning (in his first round match) but he turned it up at the end of the game.

"You never want to lose the first game. I had (to play) a qualifier and you don't know what to expect. It was a very difficult game."

He added: "Sometimes you want to have a game with Adrian Lewis, Phil Taylor, Raymond van Barneveld, Whitlock, Wadey - then you know you need to play well."

Whitlock through

Anderson through to face Thornton

World No 4 Simon Whitlock also breezed through his first round contest, the Australian recording a 3-0 victory over Ross Smith.

The 2010 runner-up was taken to a deciding leg in the second set but came through to complete a comfortable victory, although he just missed out on being the first player to post an average above 100.

Former World No 1 Colin Lloyd was eliminated after being dramatically edged out in a sudden death leg by Australia's Beau Anderson.

With the match tied at two sets each and Anderson leading 4-3 in the deciding set, the Oceanic Masters winner missed three match darts before Lloyd took out a 105 finish to tie keep his hopes alive.

Anderson missed another match dart in the 10th leg of the set, allowing 'Jaws' to level at 5-5 and take the contest into a deciding leg. The Australian hit the centre of the bull to win the throw and controlled the leg from the start to close out the narrowest of wins.

Van Gerwen's fellow fast-throwing Dutchman Vincent van der Voort also booked his spot the last 32 after grinding out a 3-1 win over Matt Clark.

Van der Voort looked like he would finish the job in double-quick time when he took the first set 3-0, but his scoring dropped off and Clark levelled things up in the second set.

But the 30th seed managed to progress after winning the next two sets, even if he was not quite at his best in either.