Luke Littler’s quest for a maiden World Darts Championship title remains firmly on track after a third-round victory over Ian White.
The teenage sensation, last year’s runner-up against the odds and now the title favourite 12 months later, recovered from another sluggish start and some uncharacteristic struggles on the doubles to win 4-1 in the final match of Saturday’s evening session at Alexandra Palace and reach the last 16.
Up next for Littler is a first-ever meeting with Ryan Joyce, who earlier on day 11 outlasted 20th seed Ryan Searle 4-3 in a thrilling contest.
Littler, who averaged just under 98 for the match against White, told Sky Sports: "It was tough, Ian threw everything at me and I had to stay switched on.
"It was just a case of settling into it. I know what's gone wrong tonight, the doubles, but most importantly, I've won."
Littler almost suffered an early shock when White missed a dart for the first set, before more uncharacteristically loose doubles let the 54-year-old level the match at 1-1.
Littler looked to have stirred when he rounded off a much more impressive third set with a shot at bull, but he gifted White another set dart in the fourth before crucially snatching the set and moving on to complete his victory.
Littler will face Joyce next after Joyce edged a nail-biting 4-3 win over Searle in the final match of the afternoon session.
At 3-2 down in the final set, Searle missed a single 20 to set up a dart at tops that would have tied the set at 3-3, and Joyce duly finished the job to earn his place in round four for the first time since 2019.
Three-time champion Michael van Gerwen admitted he has plenty more to give after chiselling out a 4-2 win over last year's quarter-finalist Brendan Dolan.
Van Gerwen, who is chasing his first title since 2019, charged through eight consecutive legs to seize control of the match at 3-1 but somewhat fell over the line after dropping a scrappy fifth set to the dogged Northern Irishman.
Van Gerwen told Sky Sports: "It was a really difficult game. Everyone knows Brendan doesn't give up, and I tried to punish him at the right moments and wasn't capable of doing that.
"After 1-1 I think I played some really good sets but I let it slip away with a few things. There's still a lot of work to do, but I know I'm capable of doing it."
Chris Dobey twice came from behind to beat Josh Rock 4-2 and move one win away from his third consecutive world quarter-final.
In the afternoon session, Nathan Aspinall fired a warning to his rivals after booking his place in the last 16 with a 4-0 win over Andrew Gilding.
The 33-year-old Aspinall did not have to be on his best form to beat his below-par opponent and maintain hopes of emulating his back-to-back semi-final appearances in 2019 and 2020.
But he believes an evident improvement in one of the weaker parts of his game augurs well for the sterner tests that will face him in the later stages.
Aspinall told Sky Sports: "Normally I'm really bad at finishing, that's normally why I lose, but in the last two games I've scored very well. I don't care about averages and numbers - I'm in the last 16.
"In the last six months I've been very flat when I'm playing and I've made a conscious effort to get that fire lit in my stomach. If I get the scoring going with that finishing, I'm tough to beat."
Aspinall will face Ricardo Pietreczko in the last 16 after the German brushed aside Scott Williams 4-1, wrapping up his victory with an impressive 121 checkout.
Additional reporting by the Press Association.
