Daryl Gurney: Londonderry man to face Ronny Huybrechts in PDC World opener

Daryl Gurney reached the quarter-finals at this year's PDC World Championships

Northern Ireland's number four seed Daryl Gurney will face Belgian Ronny Huybrechts in the first round of the PDC World Championships.

Londonderry man Gurney will go into the event with genuine title hopes after winning the World Grand Prix title in Dublin in October.

Fermanagh man Brendan Dolan will face Croatia's Alan Ljubic in the final qualifying round at Alexandra Palace.

Victory will set up a first-round game against 28th seed Robert Thornton.

Scotland's Thornton won the World Grand Prix in 2015 and is also a former UK Open and World Masters champion.

The tournament will take place at the London venue from 14 December to 1 January.

Gurney reached the quarter-finals at last season's PDC World Championships and also progressed to the semi-finals at the UK Open and the World Matchplay.

His first-round opponent Huybrechts has never been beyond the last 32 at the world championships.

Sixteen-time world champion Phil Taylor will face Chris Dobey in the first round of the PDC World Championship - his last event before he retires.

Taylor, 57, announced in January that 2017 would be his final year on the Professional Darts Corporation tour.

World number one Michael van Gerwen will start the defence of his title against fellow Dutchman Christian Kist.

A field of 72 players will compete for a £1.8m prize fund and a record £400,000 first prize.

First-round draw

Mervyn King v Zoran Lerchbacher

Dave Chisnall v Vincent van der Voort

Joe Cullen v Jermaine Wattimena

Michael van Gerwen v Christian Kist

James Wade v Keegan Brown

Steve Beaton v William O'Connor

Alan Norris v Kim Viljanen

Rob Cross v Seigo Asada or Gordon Mathers

Kyle Anderson v Peter Jacques

Adrian Lewis v Aleksandr Oreshkin or Kevin Munch

Michael Smith v Steve Lennon

Daryl Gurney v Ronny Huybrechts

Peter Wright v Diogo Portela

Robert Thornton v Brendan Dolan or Alan Ljubic

Jelle Klaasen v Jan Dekker

Simon Whitlock v Martin Schindler

Gerwyn Price v Ted Evetts

Jonny Clayton v Kenny Neyens or Jamie Lewis

James Wilson v Krzystof Ratajski

Justin Pipe v Xiao Chen Zong or Bernie Smith

Cristo Reyes v Antonio Alcinas

Darren Webster v Devon Petersen

Mark Webster v Kai Fen Lung or Paul Lim

Ian White v Willard Bruguier or Cody Harris

Kim Huybrechts v James Richardson

John Henderson v Marko Kantele

Phil Taylor v Chris Dobey

Mensur Suljovic v Kevin Painter

Stephen Bunting v Dimitri van den Bergh

Benito van de Pas v Steve West

Gary Anderson v Jeff Smith or Luke Humphries

Raymond van Barneveld v Richard North