A solid start for Price in his bid to regain the PDC World title

GERWYN

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Price began his bid for a second PDC world title with a convincing straight-set victory over Adam Gawlas.Price, 40, lost only two of the 11 legs that were played, averaged 96.44 and hit six 180s in a dominant first-round display.

Czech thrower Gawlas, a former UK Open semifinalist, was heavily outscored by Price throughout and was restricted to just three darts at doubles in the entire contest.

Five years on from his world title win, Welshman Price is among the favourites to lift the trophy again this time around, at the end of a consistent year in which he has had several deep runs in majors.

"I played pretty decent apart from the two legs I gave away," the ninth seed, who enjoyed good support from the Alexandra Palace crowd, told Sky Sports.

"I'll need to improve to win this tournament but, for a first-round game, that was OK."