MICHAEL VAN GERWEN will begin his defence of the William Hill US Darts Masters title against top Canadian Jeff Smith in Las Vegas.

JEFF SMITH won the William Hill North American Championship with a memorable 6-4 defeat of John Norman Jnr in the final.

WITH eight qualifiers confirming their place in Thursday's 2018 William Hill North American Championship, we give the lowdown on the players battling it out for a place at the Alexandra Palace.

DAWSON MURSCHELL and DJ Sayre will clash in the stand-out quarter-final tie of the William Hill North American Championship.

JEFF SMITH and Danny Lauby were amongst the final six players to seal places in the William Hill North American Championship and US Darts Masters.

DENNIS SAYRE and John Norman Jnr were the two players to win through Tuesday's qualifiers in Las Vegas.

WORLD number one Michael van Gerwen has spoken of his excitement at returning to Las Vegas for the William Hill US Darts Masters.

PUT your darts knowledge to the test with our Official PDC Quiz: Las Vegas 2018 Edition.

OVER 170 players will compete for places in the William Hill North American Championship and William Hill US Darts Masters.

ROYDEN LAM, Lourence Ilagan and Seigo Asada have confirmed their places in the 2018 Shanghai Darts Masters from the PDC Asian Tour rankings.