Florian Hempel was the first of the five German starters to complete and win his opening match at the Darts World Championship.
In the first round duel, the 33-year-old beat Irish World Cup debutant Dylan Slevin 3-1, Hempel now faces Belgian Dimitri van den Bergh.
The world number 59 was happy. Hempel also has important prize money in the fight to stay in the top 64 and the associated PDC tour card.
Hempel, who opened the first leg in London’s “Ally Pally” and brought it home, was initially too imprecise on the doubles fields. The result was an early break and Slevin secured the first set.
In the second round, however, Hempel improved, threw his first 180 of the game and was not disturbed by the Irishman’s 167 finish, the highest checkout of this World Cup to date.
After Hempel equalized the set, Slevin countered with two leg wins, but Hempel grabbed the next five legs. His third match dart on double 18 finally brought him victory and the next duel with van den Bergh, against whom he had achieved a surprise coup in the second round of the World Cup two years ago.
On Tuesday evening the next two Germans intervened in the action. First, Dragutin Horvat meets the Belgian Mike De Decker, before World Cup debutant Ricardo Pietreczko takes on the Japanese Mikuru Suzuki. Gabriel Clemens and Martin Schindler have a bye and are both seeded for the second round.