Luke Littler survived a match dart to narrowly avoid a first-round exit at the Winmau World Masters in a dramatic win over Mike De Decker in Milton Keynes.

Littler has won six of the PDC’s eight major television titles in the past 12 months, including a successful defense of the world title, but he suffered a huge scare in the tournament opener at Arena MK.

The 19-year-old came close to hitting a stunning nine-dart in a chaotic match that saw Dedecker win two consecutive sets but miss the match dart to win 3-1 before Littler struck back in the dying moments.

Littler, who hit seven full points with an average of 98.62, broke Dedecker to send the match to the deciding set, where he won both legs to win 3-2 and set up a second-round meeting with Ross Smith.

Defending champions Luke Humphreys and Josh Locke both came back from a set down to defeat Dave Chisnall and Connor Scutt respectively, while Danny Noppert and Stephen Bunting also claimed victory by similar margins.

Littler survives Masters thriller

The world number one held his own early with 13 darts and recovered from a missed set of darts in the following game to get off to a good start in the decisive period, only for Dedecker to level the match with a brilliant 121-dart effort.

Littler’s wayward finish – he had only succeeded six of 19 doubles attempts – allowed Dedecker to grab a break of serve on his way to winning the third set, before the Belgian held serve in the opening game of the next game to extend the famous victory.

Littler came very close to his first nine-dart of the tournament, missing D15 after eight perfect darts, and then snatched the set in the next leg after Dedecker wasted a match dart on D11 to finish on 142.

Dedecker never recovered from the missed opportunity and Littler won the next two legs – in a best-of-three tournament format – to continue his pursuit of one of only two missing PDC TV Slams on his resume.

“That was a tough thing to do,” Littler told ITV. “I just didn’t go there. Mike (Dedecker) deserved to win the second and third sets. I had to fight back and that’s what I did.

“It was a little (nervous) because it was races one to two (of each group), not races one to three. I crossed the finish line, found some form and got the win.”

Humphreys defends title with victory

Humphreys, who averaged 104.13 and hit seven 180s in just 10 games in the win over Chisnall, wasted five darts in the opener and took the next three sets.

The world number two managed a 12-dart and 11-dart leg to miss Chisnall despite missing 13 of 20 double attempts. Humphreys aims to improve his finishing against Luke Woodhouse.

“My scoring is top notch, but I need to improve my doubles game,” Humphries said. “It’s always great to be the defending champion in any tournament.

“I made great memories last year and I hope to make more this year. It was an intense match. If you don’t hit doubles you put pressure on yourself, but I was really happy with the way I ended the match.”

Woodhouse beat German number one Martin Schindler in straight sets with an impressive average of 108.64, while Norpert beat Daryl Gurney 3-1 and Bunting beat Geoffrey de Graaf by the same score.

Former world champion Rob Cross defeated world championship semi-finalist Ryan Searle 3-1 to set up a last-16 showdown with Rock, while Smith defeated Dutch newcomer Jimmy van Schie to set up a showdown with Littler on Saturday.

Winmau World Masters: Saturday second round schedule

Afternoon session (1300 GMT)
Second round x4
Best of seven sets
Damon Hurtaw v Chris Dobie
Gary Anderson v James Wade
Gian van Veen v Nathan Aspinall
Jonny Clayton v Gwen Price

Evening session (1900 GMT)
Second round x4
Best of seven sets
Rob Cross v Josh Rock
Stephen Bunting v Danny Noppert
Luke Littler v Ross Smith
Luke Humphreys v Luke Woodhouse

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