Murray sets up Ally Pally clash with world No 1 van Gerwen
Edinburgh’s Ryan Murray has set up a Saturday night showdown with world No 1 Michael van G er we na ft er the S cot made a winning debut at the PDC World Championship.
Murray defeated Lourence I lag an in the first round at Alex and ra Palace and will now meet the Dutch great who is a three-time world champion.
After his 3-1 win, the 33-yearold said: “I’m not going to lie, I was a bit nervous. I didn’t play that great but I’ve dug deep and won the game.”
Murray’s day job is as a printer and this was his first experience of set-play darts but he held his ner ve to see off Ilagan, a Filipino professional.
Murray has played Van Gerwen before and on that occasion the 2019 world champion threw two nine-dart finishes.
“Saturday’ s a different day and now that I’ve had that little bit of experience on the stage hopefully I can play a bit better and put a challenge up against Michael,” said Murray.
Meanwhile, Northern I reland's Daryl Gurney claimed a narrow 3-2 win over Irishman William O'connor in their second round match.
Gurney took a 2-0 lead before O'connor drew level at 2-2.
But Gurney claimed set five to clinch the victory and a thirdround clash with Chris Dobey.
"I've been working so hard at home to prepare for this World Championship," said Gurney.
"I needed to put the work in to get myself up to speed because I feel like the standard in the PDC is moving on and I don't want to get left behind.
"I knew it would be a tough game today so I'm pleased to get through it."