Gary Anderson among The Winners in Auckland Darts Masters First Round

Anderson stared defeat in the face against Modra before snatching a narrow 6-5 win in a dramatic first round contest.

After Anderson took out 88 on the bull and tops to win the first two legs, he could only watch as Adelaide's Modra took out 100, 126 and 120 to stun the Scot and take a 3-2 advantage.

The Australian also missed four darts to take the sixth leg as Anderson escaped from misses across three earlier visits by landing double one to level - only to see Modra finish 78 on tops for a 4-3 lead and double eight to move 5-4 up.

Anderson posted a maximum and tops to take the game into a decider, in which he landed a 180 to be first to a finish - only to miss two darts at double 19 to finish 95.

Modra, though, was unable to take out 100 to snatch the win, and Anderson returned to spare his blushes on double 19.

"I've not seen Rob for about 10 years and I hope it's another 10 years before I see him again because his finishing was superb," joked Anderson afterwards.

Domestic No 1 Rob Szabo came up against the No 1 Michael van Gerwen, and despite a plucky performance from the Wellington-based builder, he went down 6-3.

"Of the qualifiers I think Rob was the best player and I had to perform well," said van Gerwen.

Szabo will compete in the World Championship in London in December, and admitted: "It's not the result I wanted because I always thought that if I could play my top game I'd have a shot."

Another Wellington ace, Craig Caldwell, suffered a 6-0 whitewash to a clinical Phil Taylor, who averaged 104.86 and hit six doubles from eight attempts in his 13-minute triumph.

"The 6-0 scoreline looks like a thrashing but it wasn't," said Taylor. "My finishing was good tonight."

The event's other New Zealander, Mark Cleaver, was defeated 6-1 by world No 4 Peter Wright.

"I wanted to perform well for the crowd here and I started great with the 12-darter, but it was downhill from there," said Wright.

Australian star Simon Whitlock claimed a superb 6-4 win over No 8 seed Stephen Bunting in a see-saw contest to set up a quarter-final against Phil Taylor in Auckland.

Adrian Lewis made a clinical start to his challenge, following up last week's run to the final in Sydney with a 6-2 defeat of DPA qualifier David Platt.

Raymond van Barneveld needed just 14 minutes to set up a quarter-final against Dutch rival Van Gerwen with a 6-0 whitewash of qualifier Loz Ryder, as the Australian Grand Prix No 1 was condemned to defeat in the first round.

James Wade held off a spirited fight back from Paul Nicholson before pulling clear to claim a 6-3 win from their first round contest.

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