Luke Littler safely through ahead of final group game in Wolverhampton
Reigning champion Luke Littler goes into Tuesday night's final group-stage games knowing he has already secured his place in the knockout stages of the Mr Vegas Grand Slam of Darts in Wolverhampton.
Littler defied a 170 checkout from Connor Scutt as he took a 5-3 win from their Group E contest to secure his spot in the last 16 on Sunday night.
The reigning Grand Slam champion has won every game he has played in the tournament and hit 55 per cent of his doubles against Scutt to maintain his perfect record at WV Active Aldersley.
"We were both up for a good game," said Littler, who averaged 105 in his victory. "I can say now that I'm through, relax tomorrow and come back Tuesday.
"It was better than the first game and hopefully I can play even better going forward. I'm very happy that the pressure is off going into the final game."
World No.1 and 2023 Grand Slam winner Luke Humphries was last night trying to secure the three legs he needs to seal his own passage into round two against Nathan Aspinall, having struck a perfect nine-dart leg to complete victory over another former champion in Michael Smith.
"It's the weirdest game of darts I've been involved in," admitted Humphries. "I didn't feel good and couldn't hit a treble. It all felt like hard work and I thought the game it was gone.
"To then go on and hit a nine-darter, that's why darts is one of the best sports in the world. It was quite an incredible game to be part of, and I'm still flabbergasted from what just happened!"
Ricky Evans ended the weekend in the knowledge he had safely made it through as he hit a huge 170 checkout to secure his place in the knockout stage by edging past Stefan Bellmont 5-4.
Chris Dobey secured his place in the last 16 with a 5-1 thrashing of Damon Heta, while Dutchman Danny Noppert also moved into the knockout phase with a 5-4 triumph over Cam Crabtree.
German prospect Niko Springer will also compete in round two as he continued a memorable Wolverhampton debut with a 5-4 win over Michael van Gerwen.
Three-time Grand Slam champion Van Gerwen now faces a winner-takes-all clash with Gary Anderson in Tuesday's final Group G games, after the Scottish ace edged out Beau Greaves to claim a crucial win.
A high-quality affair saw both players average over 102, while the two-time world champion defied a 100 per cent checkout success rate from Greaves, who for the second consecutive game averaged over a ton but lost a last-leg decider.
"She's going to cause so much trouble next year in the ProTour," said Anderson. "I watched Beau the night before, she was hitting 140 after 140.
"After the next five years, I don't think you will have one person dominating darts because from these youngsters there are going to be so many good darts players."
Fourth seed Stephen Bunting is another high-profile name to crash out in the group stage, with Luke Woodhouse securing progression from Group C.
Bunting had lost 5-4 to Alexis Toylo on Saturday and went down to Martin Schindler by the same margin 24 hours later to see his Wolverhampton hopes ended.
Monday night will see the final games from Groups A-D, while Tuesday's session will conclude the group stage for Groups E-H.
