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Luke Littler won his first match as world number one to advance to the Players Championship finals, while Gian van Veen recorded an impressive second win over Luke Humphries in the space of a month.
Less than a month after beating Humphreys in the European Championship final, Van Veen battled back from three games to defeat the defending champions 6-5 in Minehead.
Humphreys flew out of the traps with exit points of 145, 40 and 83, but Van Veen came back strongly with finishes of 161 and 81 on point.
The former world number one steadied himself before losing his throw at 4-4, before Van Veen twice fouled allowing Humphries to set up a decider.
Van Veen’s hard work appeared to be in vain as he missed five darts, but Humphries missed just as much and suffered a fourth successive loss to the Dutchman.
This month has not been the best for Humphreys, who earlier this month surrendered his first world title to Littler when he lost to “The Nook” in the final of the Grand Slam of Darts.
Meanwhile, Littler advanced to the second round by defeating Jeffrey De Graaf 6-1.
After being introduced to the crowd as world number one for the first time in his career, Littler averaged 104.46 to continue his quest for a first Players Championship title.
“It was an absolutely fantastic feeling, probably one of the best feelings I’ve ever had, to be world champion and world number one at the same time – but there’s more to come,” Little told ITV Sport.
“This is a title I haven’t won yet. Last year I failed against Luke Humphries so I want to put a mark on that title.”
The 18-year-old will face Ross Smith in the second round after the Englishman beat Ryan Meikle 6-1.
Top seed Gerwyn Price was not at his best against Max Hopp – missing six darts when trying to take a 5-2 lead – but the German failed to capitalize and Price won 6-2.
Stephen Ponting achieved a routine victory over Richie Edhouse 6-2, before Nathan Aspinall defeated Karel Sedlacek 6-3.
Four-time world champion Raymond van Barneveld was eliminated from the tournament after losing 6-3 to Krzysztof Ratajski.
Rob Cross, Dave Chisnall and Jonny Clayton were all beaten in the afternoon session, with James Horrell beating previous finalist Clayton with an average of 99.2.
James Wade, ranked sixth in the world, qualified with a comfortable 6-3 victory over Mickey Mansell.
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