Reigning champion Rob Cross was forced to dig deep against Jeffrey de Zwaan to book his place in the third round of the William Hill World Darts Championship, but in the process 'Voltage' was slashed in the betting to retain his Alexandra Palace crown.
De Zwaan had impressed when beating Nitin Kumar in the first match of the tournament to book a second round clash with Cross, and the 22-year-old Dutch star scorched out of the traps en route to a first set win over Cross averaging over 107.
However, Cross began to find the sort of form that saw him land the world title last year and reeled off three sets on the bounce to secure his place in the third round and it forced the bookmakers to rethink the lofty odds they had set before a dart was thrown.
Heading into the tournament Cross was as big as 25/1 for the title, but after blossoming on the Ally Pally stage once again he has been halved in price and is now as short as 12/1 to win back-to-back titles.
Women's world champion Lisa Ashton put up a bold bid to progress to the second round and having romped to a 3-0 opening set victory she was then edged out by Jan Dekker, who reeled off the next three sets to win, but Ashton, roared on by a vociferous crowd, just struggled to emulate her first round heroics.
In the final match of the night Cody Harris beat Martin Schindler to set up a second round clash later today with last year's young star Jamie Lewis, while all eyes will veer on 7/2 second favourite Gary Anderson, who kicks off his quest for world championship glory against Paul Nicholson or Kevin Burness.
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