The deciding leg in Amsterdam came down to a single break of throw, and again it belonged to Luke Littler. Trailing 9-8 in the best-of-19 contest, the world champion held his nerve to level the match before a 12-darter against the darts sealed a 10-9 victory over Nathan Aspinall and a place in the quarter-finals of the World Series of Darts Finals.
The 19-year-old had to dig deep after falling behind late in a contest that never settled into a rhythm for either player. Littler admitted afterwards that his confidence had been low through the opening sessions. "I only played well in the last session [from 6-6 onwards]. In the first two sessions, I didn't feel confident but I managed to get it to 6-6 and I was very good in the third," he said.
The pair have developed a habit of producing high-octane encounters. In July, Littler threw a nine-darter in the opening leg of an 11-8 victory over Aspinall in their World Matchplay classic. That familiarity, according to the world number one, is part of what makes their meetings so competitive. "The pace of the game suits us both, we're good friends and we bring the best out of each other," Littler said.
The win keeps alive Littler's bid to complete a clean sweep of the PDC's premier events in 2026. Next up is former Premier League champion Jonny Clayton, who booked his spot in the last eight with a 10-8 win over Japan's Motomu Sakai. Clayton is one of two Welshmen through to the quarter-finals, with Gerwyn Price also progressing after a 10-5 victory against Canada's Jim Long.
Price will face England's James Wade, who was the other winner in Saturday's evening session, defeating Wessel Nijman of the Netherlands. The tournament had already lost its defending champion before the last 16 got underway, with Michael van Gerwen falling to Daryl Gurney in the first round.
There was another significant upset earlier on Saturday when world number two Luke Humphries lost the deciding leg of his last-16 match against Dirk van Duijvenbode. Humphries' exit opens up the bottom half of the draw, and van Duijvenbode's reward is a quarter-final against fellow Dutchman Gian van Veen, the man Littler beat in January's World Championship final.
England's Ross Smith and Northern Ireland's Josh Rock also won their last-16 ties to complete the quarter-final line-up. The tournament concludes on Sunday, with the quarter-finals taking place from 12:00 BST and the semi-finals and final being played during the evening session from 18:00 BST.
According to BBC Sports.