RAYMOND VAN BARNEVELD hit the two biggest finishes of the William Hill World Darts Championship so far as he defeated Rowby-John Rodriguez 3-0 in the first round on Monday, while Michael Smith hit the most 180s in a match to edge out Mensur Suljovic.

Jamie Caven will have the task of facing van Barneveld next after the Dutchman hit 167 and 170 finishes in his victory, while Smith, whose nine 180s are the most by any player so far, will take on Brendan Dolan in round two after the Northern Irish ace whitewashed Nolan Arendse.

Five-time World Champion van Barneveld had been playing wearing glasses in past two months, but successfully reverted to playing without them as he averaged 99.93, hit three 180s and hit 50 percent of his doubles.

Austrian debutant Rodriguez only managed to take two legs from van Barneveld, who gave his opponent no chance whatsoever in the third set as he threw three straight 12-darters and that 170 to finish.

Van Barneveld drew first blood with a double 16 in the first leg, but Rodriguez - the World Youth Championship finalist - showed his talent with a 180 and double top to level.

Dutchman van Barneveld responded with a double four and then a 95 outshot to give him the opening set, only for Rodriguez to open up the second with a fine 14-darter.

The 2007 champion, though, answered with a superb 167 checkout - at that stage the highest in the tournament so far this year - before following a 14-darter by hitting double 16 to take a high-quality set.

The third would prove to be even better though, with three 12-darters seeing him cruise to victory, the first two involving 180s and the third being completed in some style with the maximum 170 finish.

"I tried to play in three tournaments in glasses and I never ever felt comfortable," said van Barneveld. "The view is fantastic, it's like playing in HD, but tonight I've hit a 167 and 170 without glasses and I feel brilliant after that.

"You want to win before Christmas, you want to go home happy and celebrate with your family and be happy, you don't want to lose and go home for Christmas after losing.

"I fly back tomorrow and have a day off but will be back practising soon, because this is the big one that we all want to win so there's no time to rest."

As van Barneveld hit his superb finishes, Michael Smith set the tournament benchmark for 180s with nine during his tough 3-1 win over Mensur Suljovic, where all four sets went the full five legs.

Suljovic had a slightly better average of 98.91 than Smith's 97.47 and also had a higher checkout percentage of 60 to Smith's 50, but it was all to no avail as the St Helens ace progressed.

It was no easy ride for former World Youth Champion Smith, with all four sets going the distance, but he crucially Smith broke the Suljovic throw twice while losing his own just the once.

Suljovic won the first set by finishing double eight in the decider, despite an earlier 13-darter from Smith and a 120 finish from the Austrian.

The second saw Smith's opening 12-darter bettered by an 11-dart finish from Suljovic, who also levelled in leg four with a 12-darter only to see his rival edge the decider in style with a 13-dart leg.

It was a similar story in the third set, as Suljovic took out 76 and 56 either side of a Smith 124 in the third, only to see the youngster land 180s in the next two as a break of throw in the decider gave him the set against the darts.

Suljovic led in the fourth set courtesy of a 14-darter, with Smith replying in 11 darts to level before finishing double six to move a leg away from the win, and though another 14-darter kept the Austrian's hopes alive it was the former World Youth Champion who fired in a 180 before taking out 76 on the bull to seal an impressive win.

"Two years ago I wouldn't have won that match, but I just had my head focused on the game, I wasn't distracted and I just stuck to my game," said Smith.

"I wasn't getting too carried away or too down on myself in the match, even though he was playing well and putting me under pressure, so I just kept calm and hit the crucial doubles when I needed to."

Jamie Caven is next up for van Barneveld after he had more than a few problems with his doubles as well as with shaking off Jason Hogg before completing a 3-2 victory in the first round.

Caven hit four 180s to debutant Hogg's five, as the Aberdeen ace averaged 84 to his rival's 80, but it was finishing off the legs that proved to be the most difficult for both men.

Number 19 seed Caven was way down at 24 percent as he hit just 11 of 46 attempts, but his quality shone through despite being being pushed all the way.

Caven had enjoyed a clean sweep in the first set, only for Hogg to reply in kind in the second as he levelled the game with a 13-darter in a 3-0 set.

Hogg also landed a 14-dart finish in set four, only for Caven to take the set 3-1 with a break of throw in the fourth leg as he edged back ahead.

Hogg edged the fourth in a deciding leg as he took the game all the way, and though Caven endured some nervous moments on his doubles in taking a 2-0 lead in the final set, he replied to a 14-darter from the Scot with two 180s in a fine 12-darter to seal his second round spot.

"I never played at my best at all and the doubles were a problem but I've played better than that and lost here so you just have to take the win, and come back stronger and hopefully playing better next time," he said.

"I can enjoy my Christmas now - I've made the second round before but the schedule has always meant that I've played my second round before Christmas, so it'll be nice going home knowing I'll be back here afterwards."

Brendan Dolan enjoyed the first whitewash of the tournament as he won nine straight legs to overcome South African Masters champion Nolan Arendse 3-0.

Arendse, on his World Championship debut, had enjoyed a strong performance as he won 4-0 in his preliminary round clash with Hong Kong's Alex Hon, but was unable to upset the Northern Irish ace, who averaged over 90 and hit almost half of his attempts at doubles.

After a scrappy first leg, Dolan took out 80 to go two legs up and then followed it up with a 13-darter to seal the set with the minimum of fuss.

Dolan hit his first 180 of the match at the start of the second set and then finished 108 to keep the momentum going, following up with double eight in the second and double 16 in the next as Arendse was left stranded on tops in successive legs.

Dolan finished double ten to claim the opening leg of set three, landed a 180 in the next and double 16 to sealing the whitewash win and set up a second round clash with Michael Smith.

"It wasn't as fluent as I wanted it to be but I did enough to get the job done," said Dolan. "I knew I had to start strongly and bully him so he couldn't bully me.

"That's what I did - I started strongly and hit a few doubles to get ahead and I stayed there. Nolan played well in his preliminary round match so I didn't want him to get going as I know he is a good player."

The preliminary and first rounds conclude on Tuesday with the remaining five games, including two-time World Champion Adrian Lewis up against debutant David Pallett.

Lakeside Champion Stephen Bunting makes his Alexandra Palace debut against either Jermaine Wattimena or Robert Marijanovic, with Mervyn King meeting Max Hopp and Vincent van der Voort playing John Henderson.