Luke Littler is through to the fourth round of the World Darts Championship after overcoming another tough test to beat Ian White 4-1 at Alexandra Palace.
The pre-tournament favorite opened a close set but lost the second to White, who ran away with three of the first four sets and threatened a famous upset in the fourth.
Littler raced through the third set in just 39 darts and punished a missed set dart from White to end the fourth in 70 darts, then broke White in the next before closing out the win in 14 balls.
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Littler outscored White with a great leg where he finished with an 88 in the bullseye.
Littler averaged 97.84 and scored 12 against White, with the 17-year-old avoiding a repeat of the emotion seen in his second-round win against Ryan Meikle to book a last-16 meeting with Ryan Joyce on Monday.
More to follow…
MVG sends Dolan off as Dobey moves on
Van Gerwen found himself on top of the opening set when he claimed a break in the third leg, only for Dolan to reel off 15 shots, including an 86 on the bull, to take a shock lead.
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Michael van Gerwen put on a vintage display, hitting a 129 to break Brendan Dolan to take the second set.
The Dutchman kicked 21 darts despite missing 7 darts on the double, but finished second in emphatic fashion on the next move, shooting 129 darts for a 12-dart break, before quickly taking control of the contest.
Van Gerwen won eight straight legs, including a brilliant 149 early in the fourth, to win the next two sets in straight legs, only for Dolan to take advantage of an unerring finish from the three-time world champion to take the set back in the fifth.
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Van Gerwen hit 149 in the opening match of the third set against Dolan
Dolan made a brilliant 123 bet on the bull and missed the dart on the next leg to take the contest to a final set decider as Van Gerwen survived to hold the throw to secure his place in the next round.
“It was really tough, it was a really tough game,” Van Gerwen said Sky Sports. “I tried to punish him at the right times and I couldn’t do it. I can only blame myself for that. I’m so glad that D8 came in at the end.”
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Van Gerwen said he has had a tough year and still has a lot of work to do
The opening match of the evening also produced a tense encounter with Dobey coming from 2-1 down to claim a 4-2 win over Rock to book a last-16 meeting against either Kevin Doets or Krzysztof Ratajski.
After losing the third set, Dobbie responded with a fourth straight leg and survived Rock when he dropped a tie in the fifth to win the final leg decider, before sealing victory with a brilliant double-double in the 19th and 96th rounds.
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Chris Dobey returns for the win, finishing with a double-double after Josh Rock piled on the pressure with a 180 in the third round.
Summary of the afternoon. Aspinall breezes to the last 16
Nathan Aspinall advanced to the last 16 for the first time in five years after defeating Andrew Gilding in straight sets to set him up for the match. Riccardo Pietrecko on Monday.
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During Nathan Aspinall’s match with Andrew Gilding, Asp got a little sidetracked by the Alexandra Palace crowd as he briefly stopped playing to watch the antics of Ally Pally.
Aspinall broke Gilding twice in the opening set to advance to the final decider and won the next two before closing out an impressive win in which she averaged 92.17 and took out the tops to hit a clinical 14-dart break.
“I’m glad I was able to finish,” Aspinall said Sky Sports. “Usually I finish very badly, that’s why I lose. Usually my goals are not there. The last two games I’ve played, I’ve finished really well, not great.”
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Nathan Aspinall blows the roof off Alexandra Palace as his walk brings the crowd to their feet against Andrew Gilding in the 2025 World Darts Championship.
Pietrecko continued his impressive World Championship run by sweeping past last year’s semi-finalist Scott Williams, winning both the first two sets and taking the fourth with straight legs before cruising to a 4-1 victory with an astonishing 121 cashes.
The other match of the session went into the final decider, where Joyce lost a two-set lead against Ryan Searle before recovering to reach the fourth round for the first time since 2019.
“It was just a really tough match,” Joyce said Sky Sports. “At the end I tried my best to get through and I’m so pleased I was able to find something in the tank in the last set.”
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Ryan Joyce beat Ryan Searle’s return to win 4-3 to advance to the fourth round.Joyce also hit an impressive 113 cash and there was a riot from Searle as he missed a 20 to leave the tops, all in the final set.
What’s next?
Round three will conclude on Sunday with Dimitri van den Berg leading the afternoon session against Calan Ridge after Kevin Deutz takes on Krzysztof Ratajski and Jeffrey de Graaf takes on Paolo Nebrida.
Ricky Evans takes on Robert Owen to open the evening session, the tournament’s final last 32 match, before the fourth round begins later that evening with a stubborn Welsh showdown between Jonny Clayton and former world champion Gerwyn Price.
Defending champion Luke Humphreys will then face the two-time world champion in the final match of the night, with the remaining six fourth-round matches played on Monday before the quarter-finals are played over two sessions on New Year’s Day.
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