Bahrain Darts Masters: Luke Littler will get world champion reign off to profitable begin as Rob Cross suffers shock loss | Darts Information

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Reigning world champion Luke Littler began his Bahrain Darts Masters defence with a 6-3 victory over Lourence Ilagan to e-book his spot within the quarter-finals.

Littler is seeking to maintain maintain of what was his maiden title on the PDC circuit, simply a few weeks after he was topped the youngest world champion at Alexandra Palace at simply 17 years of age.

It’s also the match at which he hit a nine-darter in opposition to Nathan Aspinall within the 2024 quarter-finals, his first of 4 throughout the 12 months.

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Emma Paton, Mark Webster and Richard Ashdown focus on if Littler can break Phil Taylor’s World Darts Championship titles document of 16

The ‘Nuke’ was in management all through his opening encounter at Bahrain Worldwide Circuit and managed to outlive a mid-match fightback from Ilagan, a silky 142 checkout plus two breaks of throw serving to him to wrestle again the momentum.

He’ll now face Gerwyn Worth who put in a stable displaying with a 6-3 victory over Ally Pally crowd favorite Lok Yin Lee.

Paolo Nebrida pulled off a shock win over Rob Cross in Bahrain
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Paolo Nebrida pulled off a shock win over Rob Cross in Bahrain

The opposite massive story of the night time noticed Paolo Nebrida put his identify within the document books as he turned solely the second participant from the Asian Tour to beat a PDC participant on the World Sequence with a 6-3 win over Rob Cross.

Cross seemed out of kinds and had a horrible time on the doubles, a break of throw and loss in a 29-dart leg setting him again to 3-1.

From there, Nebrida did the powerful work and a clutch 116 checkout was adopted by 62 on tops for a game-winning break of throw which awarded the Filipino participant his personal slice of darting historical past.

Bahrain Darts Masters: Day one outcomes

Rob Cross 3-6 Paolo Nebrida
Gerwyn Worth 6-3 Lok Yin Lee
Stephen Bunting 6-2 Nitin Kumar
Chris Dobey 6-0 Basem Mahmood
Luke Humphries 6-0 Abdulla Saeed
Luke Littler 6-3 Lourence Ilagan
Peter Wright 6-3 Alexis Toylo
Nathan Aspinall 6-2 Xiaochen Zong

World No 1 Luke Humphries put in a stellar efficiency as he cruised to a 6-0 win over Abdulla Saeed.

Humphries got here out able to entertain the gang and his checkouts of 151, 100, and 141 did simply that, ‘Cool Hand’ hitting 180s with ease on the best way.

Fourth seed Stephen Bunting booked a quarter-final showdown in opposition to Chris Dobey with a 6-2 domination of Nitin Kumar.

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Watch as Stephen Bunting’s son cheers on his dad to a quarter-final victory over Peter Wright

Bunting got here out firing, 142 and 122 checkouts plus three massive breaks of throw serving to him take management and ship out an announcement that his type will not be going wherever after his run to the semi-finals within the World Darts Championship.

Bahrain Darts Masters: Quarter-finals

Luke Humphries vs Nathan Aspinall
Stephen Bunting vs Chris Dobey
Luke Littler vs Gerwyn Worth
Paolo Nebrida vs Peter Wright

Dobey additionally made his mark with a 6-0 whitewash win over Basem Mahmood, whereas Peter Wright put within the work early on to cement a 6-3 win over Alexis Toylo and make it by the primary spherical for a 3rd 12 months in a row.

The ultimate match of the night noticed Nathan Aspinall put in an expert efficiency to wrap up a 6-2 victory in opposition to Xiaochen Zong.

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