Taylor Powers Over First Hurdle

Phil Taylor put personal troubles aside to ease into the second round of the PDC World Championship.

Taylor's mother has been seriously ill and the 16-time world champion was noticeably subdued during a comprehensive 3-0 victory over Germany's Jyhan Artut.

Artut did not win a leg until the third set, and he delayed Taylor's victory by breaking the throw to make it 2-2, but the 54-year-old responded in kind to clinch victory.

Taylor said afterwards he had been unsettled by Artut complaining throughout that the board was not straight.

Assessing his performance on Sky Sports, the second seed said: "Not brilliant. Bit lazy, bit slack. He kept complaining about the board. I looked at the board, it was level. It did put me off and maybe that was his game plan."

Taylor, whose average was in excess of 100, will face either Ron Meulenkamp of the Netherlands or 2008 Lakeside champion Mark Webster in the last 32.

Elsewhere on the second night of competition, 2014 runner-up Peter Wright also enjoyed a whitewash victory as he defeated former rugby union player Gerwyn Price 3-0.

Another former finalist, Andy Hamilton, made hard work of his opening encounter but managed to progress to round two with a 3-2 victory against Dave Richardson.