Luke Littler narrowly prevented a first-round exit on the Winmau World Masters after surviving a match dart in a dramatic victory over Mike De Decker in Milton Keynes.
Littler has received six of the eight ranked PDC main TV titles over the previous 12 months, together with a profitable World Championship title defence, however suffered an enormous scare in his match opener at Enviornment MK.
The 19-year-old got here near a surprising nine-darter throughout a topsy-turvy contest, the place De Decker received back-to-back units however missed a match dart for a 3-1 win earlier than Littler produced a late fightback.
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De Decker missed a match dart in opposition to Littler, the Belgian going agonisingly near a 142 checkout
Littler – who fired seven maximums and posted a 98.62 common – broke De Decker to tug the competition right into a deciding set, the place he received each legs to finish a 3-2 win and arrange a second-round assembly with Ross Smith.
Defending champion Luke Humphries and Josh Rock each got here again from a set right down to beat Dave Chisnall and Connor Scutt respectively, whereas Danny Noppert and Stephen Bunting additionally made a profitable begin by the identical margin.
Littler survives enormous scare in Masters thriller
The world No 1 made an early assertion with a 13-dart maintain and recovered from lacking set darts within the subsequent to take the opener in a deciding leg, just for De Decker to degree the match with a spectacular 121 end on the bullseye.
Wayward ending from Littler – who solely transformed six of 19 makes an attempt at double – allowed De Decker to pinch a break on his method to claiming the third set, earlier than the Belgian held throw within the opening leg of the following to maneuver a leg from a well-known victory.
Littler and De Decker produced a five-set thriller (credit score: Taylor Lanning/PDC)
Littler got here agonisingly near the primary nine-darter of the match, lacking D15 after eight good darts, then snatched the set within the subsequent leg after De Decker squandered a match dart on D11 for a 142 end.
De Decker by no means recovered from his missed alternative, as Littler received the following two legs – in a match format the place units are performed over the perfect of three legs – to proceed his pursuit for considered one of solely two lacking PDC TV majors from his CV.
“That was a tough one,” Littler advised ITV. “I just didn’t get going there. Mike [De Decker] deserved to win the second and third sets. I had to fight back and that’s what I done.
“A bit of bit [of nerves] as a result of it is first to 2 [legs per set], not first to a few. I obtained over the road, discovered a couple of little bit of kind and obtained the win.”
More to follow…
Winmau World Masters: Saturday’s second-round schedule
Afternoon Session (1300 GMT)
Round Two x4
Best of seven sets
Damon Heta v Chris Dobey
Gary Anderson v James Wade
Gian van Veen v Nathan Aspinall
Jonny Clayton v Gerwyn Price
Evening Session (1900 GMT)
Round Two x4
Best of seven sets
Rob Cross v Josh Rock
Stephen Bunting v Danny Noppert
Luke Littler v Ross Smith
Luke Humphries v Luke Woodhouse
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