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| |  Saturday, 5 January, 2002, 15:47 GMT Walton opens defence with win Walton was an unexpected winner of last year's event John "Boy" Walton has opened the defence of his Embassy World Championship title with a dominant first-round win. The top seed beat four-time semi-finalist Andy Fordham 3-0 at Frimley Green. Fordham, known as the "Viking", frequently struggled on the doubles and Walton lost only one leg.
The match was expected to be a closely fought contest but ended up being little more than a workout for Walton. "He kept missing doubles and I wasn't really flowing because I was shaking with nerves," Walton said after the win. "I had been panicking since before Christmas about playing Andy and I think he felt the same. "There's a hell of a lot of pressure on me as champion because I'm there to be shot at. "But I just have to put that out of my head and play my own game," the 40-year-old concluded.
Any thoughts that the match would live up to the billing were quickly dispelled when Walton won the first five legs. Fordham then won his only leg before Walton closed the second set and raced through the third to seal victory. "I could have easily won the first set 3-0 and been 2-1 up in the second," Fordham said. "I wanted to put John under pressure but I couldn't hit my doubles. If I had, we would have seen what sort of champion he is." It was the first time that Fordham had failed to clear the first hurdle at the Lakeside in eight appearances. In the afternoon's other matches Sweden's Stefan Nagy also won 3-0 against Gary Anderson, and Colin Monk edged out Tony O'Shea 3-2 | |
See also:  03 Jan 02 | World Darts Championship 2002 Top World Darts Championship 2002 stories now: Links to more World Darts Championship 2002 stories are at the foot of the page. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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