World champion Luke Littler survived a mid-match scare to advance to the quarter-finals of the Bahrain Darts Masters with a 6-3 victory over Philippine challenger Lourence Ilagan.
The opening round saw the eight PDC superstars take on the eight Asian representatives for a place in Friday’s final rounds.
Littler, in his first tournament since claiming his first world title earlier this month, quickly went up 4-1 but allowed his opponent to halve the deficit then secure a seventh-leg break.
The 17-year-old – who was breaking in a new set of arrows – regrouped with a 180 in the next leg and was one leg away from victory after a 142 checkout.
Littler averaged 94.36, adding another 180 en route to…