Gurney of Northern Ireland was involved in the match of the day as he beat compatriot William O'Connor 3-2 in a contest that went the distance.

Gurney, seeded 11, got off to a flying start taking the first two sets for the loss of one leg.

O'Connor bounced back capitalising on four missed match darts by his opponent and was able to force a deciding set.

Gurney regrouped and never looked back after breaking throw in the first leg of the decider to close out victory and avoid becoming the first big name to exit the tournament.

The other second round contest saw De Sousa of Portugal overcome England's Ross Smith 3-1.

Smith took the opening set but De Sousa took six of the next eight legs to turn the contest on its head and establish a 2-1 lead.

The Portuguese player then took three straight legs to close the match out 3-1.

Six more first round matches took place on day three, with a total of 13 nationalities represented across the day's eight games.

Two of them went the distance with Welshman Jamie Lewis coming from 2-0 down to defeat England's Luke Woodhouse 3-2 while England's Ryan Searle beat American Danny Lauby by the same scoreline 3-2.

Two more first round matches ended in 3-1 scorelines as Scotland's Ryan Murray beat Lourence Ilagan of the Philippines and Ron Meulenkamp of The Netherlands defeated Boris Krčmar of Croatia.

The two remaining first round matches played today ended in 3-0 scorelines, with Madars Razma of Latvia beating Toru Suzuki of Japan and Edward Foulkes of Japan defeating Mike de Decker of Belgium by the same scoreline.

Day one of the tournament took place with a limited number of spectators in the venue but the competition is now being played behind closed doors following a change in the coronavirus restrictions in London, meaning fans cannot attend any elite sporting events.

Tomorrow's action sees six more first round and two further second round matches take place across two sessions, with all games being contested over the best of five sets.