 Dutch television audience

Phil Taylor opened the defence of his title with a comfortable 3–0 victory over Austrian qualifier Anton Pein, without dropping a single leg during the match and only allowing Pein three darts on a double in the final leg of the final set.Number seven seed Peter Manley also had little trouble in despatching Dave Jowett with the loss of only one leg.The big upset came when Ronnie Baxter, twice a finalist in the BDO World Championship went out in the first round for the second year running.