Stephen Bunting narrowly avoided an early exit to progress into the second round of the prestigious tournament on the opening weekend.
Bunting, who reached beaten semi-finalist last year, was pushed all the way to a deciding tie-breaker by Poland’s Sebastian Bialecki before finally clinching a 3-2 victory at the iconic Ally Pally venue.
Bunting made a flying start, averaging an incredible 119.4 as he powered through the first set. Victory seemed assured after checking out a spectacular 160 finish to seize the second set.
Yet, ‘The Bullet’ cooled off, and he won just one leg over the next two sets. This allowed Bialecki – who remained unfazed even when a wasp settled on his shoulder – to square the match. Bunting found his rhythm in the decider, but was still pushed to the limit before winning it 4-2.
“Competing at Ally Pally you feel all the emotions,” Bunting explained to broadcasters. “I was aware Sebastian was going to be a challenge and even at 2-0 he never surrendered. I am fortunate to come through that one.”
Bunting's next opponent will be 'The Royal Bengal', who made history by becoming the first Indian winner at the championship. He overcame the Netherlands' Richard Veenstra 3-2 in a closely-fought contest.
The veteran player, who had lost in all four of his previous first-round appearances, remarked this landmark win could have “opened the floodgates to a billion” darts players from his homeland.
“Words fail me at this moment. I’m emotional, I’m thrilled,” Kumar expressed. “If you dream it, anything is achievable. This was my dream ever since I saw Dennis Priestley win the World Championship.”
He concluded with a humorous prediction: “I’m sorry, ten years in the future if you have multiple players in the world championship walking on to Bollywood music, you know who started it.”
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