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World champion Luke Littler survived a mid-match scare to advance to the quarter-finals of the Bahrain Darts Masters with a 6-3 victory over Philippine challenger Lourence Ilagan.
The opening round saw the eight PDC superstars take on the eight Asian representatives for a place in Friday’s final rounds.
Littler, in his first tournament since claiming his first world title earlier this month, quickly went up 4-1 but allowed his opponent to halve the deficit then secure a seventh-leg break.
The 17-year-old – who was breaking in a new set of arrows – regrouped with a 180 in the next leg and was one leg away from victory after a 142 checkout.
Littler averaged 94.36, adding another 180 en route to wrapping up the win, and will face world number nine Gerwyn Price in Friday’s last eight.
The evening opened with a major upset after former world champion Rob Cross was defeated 6-3 by Paolo Nebrida, who became the first Filipino to win on the World Series.
Nebrida came out on top of a 29-dart fourth leg, while Cross was undone by poor finishing.
World number one Luke Humphries shut out the host nation’s Abdulla Saeed, hitting six out of six on the doubles in a dominant display.
He will face Nathan Aspinall in the last eight, after ‘the Asp’ beat China’s Zong Xiao Chen 6-2.
Price secured a 6-3 victory over Lok-Yin Lee of Hong Kong with five 180s, while world number five Stephen Bunting – making his Bahrain debut – nailed a 145 opening-leg checkout in his 6-2 victory over India’s Nitin Kumar.
Chris Dobey, coming off his best run at the PDC World Championship – where he made the semi-finals – rarely looked challenged as he cruised through with a 6-0 victory over the host nation’s Bassim Mahmood.
Dobey will take on Bunting in the quarter-finals, where Peter Wright will play Nebrida after beating the Filipino’s compatriot Alexis Toylo 6-3.
