Luke Littler is through to the quarter-finals of the Paddy Power PDC World Darts Championship after a stern test against Ryan Joyce.
Littler, 17, is the overwhelming favourite to become world champion following No.1 seed Luke Humphries’ shock defeat to Peter Wright on Sunday.
The teen darts sensation had looked nervous in the opening stages of both of his previous matches in the tournament, yet showed no hesitation as he took a 1-0 lead versus Joyce.
However, after four straight breaks of throw, the second set went to the 39-year-old, from Newcastle, who punished Littler’s miss of bullseye with a stunning check-out of 116.
Warrington’s finest fought back to take the third set with some solid play, but once again Joyce levelled with some supreme finishing on the doubles, to make it 2-2.
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Littler looked tense and showed some emotion after hitting double top to go 3-2 up after some heavy scoring. And his nerves were again on show when Joyce refused to go out without a fight and made it 3-3.
However, he saved his best for last.
The Runcorn-born star will now play 12th seed Nathan Aspinall on New Year’s Day. Earlier on Monday, Aspinall registered a comfortable 4-0 win over Ricardo Pietreczko to sail into the quarter-finals.
Callan Rydz overcome a troublesome wasp landing on his head to beat qualifier Robert Owen 4-3. Chris Dobey bested Kevin Doets by the same score.
Fan-favourite Stephen Bunting made light work of his match against Luke Woodhouse, winning 4-0. And three-time world champion Michael van Gerwen survived a scare against Jeffrey de Graaf to progress via a 4-2 scoreline.
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