All eyes will be on the Alexandra Palace this evening as a Tipperary man plays at the PDC World Darts Championship for the first time ever,
Borrisokane’s Dylan Slevin makes his debut at the biggest tournament in darts when he takes on Germany’s Florian Hempel in the first round just after 7pm.
While it’s a debut at the ‘Ally Pally’ for the Tipp man, Hempel has played at the tournament twice, winning his opening game both times.
Speaking on Across The Line, darts analyst Burton DeWitt says the while Dylan has experience playing at big events, the World Championship is different:
“It’s something that means this match might be more unpredictable than it might otherwise be, you just don’t know how someone is going to take to that stage with all the pressure of the World Championships.
“With that said, Dylan played in the Players Championship finals, he got in as one of the alternates to that event just a few weeks ago and he’s played on the big stage before, he qualified for seven of the thirteen European Tour events this year.
“That will have trained him well but you just don’t know how someone is going to play on debut at the World Championships because it’s just an entirely different set of conditions and pressures.”
