Defeat For Dobromyslova In The Preliminary Rounds
Well, despite all of the hype, and a valiant effort, Anastasia Dobromyslova, nicknamed "From Russia With Love", says goodbye to the Ladbrokes.com PDC World Championship.
Dobromyslova gaveRemco van Eijden some serious cause for concern during this fascinating encounter, but the Dutchman, also a qualifier, eventually picked up his game to win 5-3 in their preliminary-round match.
Dobromyslova gave a good account of herself. She came on stage to Girls, a Sugababes song, and each throw was accompanied by enthusiastic applause from the crowd. Van Eijden fared less well and faced a constant, if good humoured, barracking.
The crowd erupted when Dobromyslova took the first leg against the darts. But she then hit a rough patch, but clawed her way back to 3-3 to the crowd's great pleaseure. She also threw a maximum 180 in the fifth leg, winning it in an impressive 13 darts — showing that she has the class and talent to play at this level.
She got close to forcing a tie-break but she narrowly missed an 81 checkout.
Dobromyslova and the Dutchman were evenly matched, both with averages of about 80, but it was her doubles that let her down.
We will see more of the Russian when she plays in a tournament in Doncaster next month. Dobromyslova switched to the PDC after leaving the BDO this month.
As far as other results for the day go:
Peter Manley, the No 13 seed and three-times finalist, was beaten 3-2 by Mensur Sulijovic in yet another surprise result.
Andy Hamilton progressed to the second round in straightforward fashion, an average of over 101 leading him to a 3-0 win against Michael Barnard.
Wayne Mardle took a fairly easy scalp in his opening-round match against David Fatum, 'Hawaii 501' lost only one leg and ended up winning 3-0 and setting up himself up for a second-round meeting with Robert Thornton.
Denis Ovens beat Steve Maish 3-0.
Charles Losper won 6-4 in his preliminary-round encounter with Sudesh Fitzgerald.
Mark Walsh took a 3-2 win over Jamie Caven but, no doubt, was gutted to miss the double 12 which would have given him a 9-dart finish - the first in the history of the PDC World Championship - not to mention a very tasty £20,000 bonus.
