Littler sets up van Gerwen rematch at Dutch Masters

After winning the Dutch Masters first round, Luke Littler faced Michael van Gerwen in a rematch of the World Darts Championship final.

Littler, who was just crowned world champion, did not perform at his best, but he did so to defeat Belgian opponent Dimitri van den Bergh 6-4.

The 16-man knock-out tournament sees all eight best-of-11 first round ties on Friday night, with the quarter-finals, semis and final on Saturday.

And in a repeat of the world championship final earlier this month, which Littler won 7-3, Littler will face van Gerwen in the final eight of his first tournament since turning 18 this week.

Littler, who was beaten in the last eight of the Bahrain Masters last week, started strong with a 12-dart second leg, ending with a 134 check out.

In what turned into a back-and-forth game, with four of the first six legs going against the throw, Van den Bergh broke him in the fourth leg to tie the score at 2-2 with an 11-darter.

Littler threw a five-four up, hitting the neighboring double eight while using a double 16, and showing some vulnerability when throwing.

However, Van den Bergh was unable to punish him, so Littler attempted to take the leg on a second occasion before the match ended.

Earlier, there was a major upset as world number one Luke Humphries was beaten 6-3 by home hero Jermaine Wattimena, ranked 35th.

After going 2-0 down, Dutchman Wattimena won five straight legs and threw some incredible darts, reaching a top 98.86, more than seven points higher than Humphries, before holding his nerve and causing wild celebrations with his throw.

After beating Richard Veenstra 6-3 in the opening match of the night, Wattimena will face world number four Rob Cross in the quarter-finals.

With seven of the eight first round matches featuring Dutch players, the partisan crowd in Den Bosch had plenty to enjoy.

They were also enthralled when Raymond van Barneveld resurrected Chris Dobey in an 11-leg thriller.

After the Englishman had missed a match dart, the 57-year-old was clearly moved when he defeated Dobey 6-5 in the final leg.

Friday night’s action was one of many exciting games, with top seed Stephen Bunting only coming up short against Dutch hope Gian van Veen in yet another 11-leg battle.

After winning the Bahrain Masters last weekend, Bunting is first in this tournament, but van Veen forced the Liverpudlian to the final leg.

He made up his mind in the set to defeat the reigning world youth champion 6-5 and advance to the final eight, where he will face van Barneveld.

Kevin Doets, a home favorite, cruised to a 6-1 victory over world number 11 Nathan Aspinall, which the home fans were also delighted with.