Wade is looking for his first PDC World title

World number three James Wade moved into the second round of the PDC World Championship with a hard fought 3-1 win over Steve Brown.

Wade, who reached the semi-finals last year, took a 2-0 lead but Brown made him work and closed the gap by winning the third set.

But Wade got a crucial break in the second leg of the third set and held his throw to secure victory.

He will next face Dutchman Michael van Gerwen who defeated Peter Wright 3-1.

Van Gerwen took the opening two sets of the game but Wright responded well by taking the third set without conceding a leg.

The Dutchman stopped the rot with a double 16 to take the opening leg of the fourth set before Wright hit back with the second leg but he missed bullseye for a 124 checkout and Van Gerwen capitalised with double eight to take the leg.

Wright's chance had gone and Van Gerwen completed a 14-dart finish to advance.

Wade, who won this year's Premier League had an average of 96.65 and hit six 180s.

"I've put in a lot of practice coming into this tournament," he said. "I feel better prepared than previous World Championships that I have competed in."

In night's opening fixture, Wayne Jones beat an out-of-sorts Alex Roy 3-1 to set up a last 32 clash with Australian Simon Whitlock.

And former world number one Colin Lloyd rounded off the evening by beating Magnus Caris 3-1.

Caris had beaten Francisco Ruiz four legs to nil in a preliminary clash earlier in the evening, but was no match for Lloyd, who finally won a match at Alexandra Palace at the third attempt.

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