Luke Littler is vying for his inaugural Players Championship title.
Luke Littler, in his debut match as the world’s top-ranked player, advanced at the Players Championship Finals, while Gian van Veen secured another impressive comeback victory against Luke Humphries, repeating a feat from just a month prior.
Building on his European Championship final triumph over Humphries, Van Veen rallied from a three-leg deficit to defeat the defending champion 6-5 in Minehead.
Humphries began strongly with checkouts of 145, 40, and 83, but Van Veen responded with impressive finishes of 161 and 81 on the bullseye.
Humphries regained composure before losing his throw at 4-4, after which two missed darts from Van Veen allowed Humphries to force a deciding leg.
Despite Van Veen’s apparent misfortune as he missed five match darts, Humphries faltered equally, succumbing to his fourth consecutive loss against the Dutchman.
Humphries’ recent form has been challenging, as he relinquished his world number one ranking to Littler earlier this month following a loss to “The Nuke” in the Grand Slam of Darts final.
Meanwhile, Littler smoothly progressed to the second round with a commanding 6-1 victory over Jeffrey de Graaf.
Introduced to the crowd as the world number one for the first time in his career, Littler averaged an impressive 104.46 as he continues his pursuit of a maiden Players Championship title.
“It felt absolutely amazing, probably one of the best feelings I’ve had, to be world champion and world number one at the same time – but there is more to come,” Little told ITV Sport.
“This is the title I haven’t won yet. Last year I came up short against Luke Humphries so I want to tick this one off.”
The 18-year-old will face Ross Smith in the second round after the Englishman saw off 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 capitalise and Price won 6-2.
Stephen Bunting notched a routine 6-2 victory over Ritchie Edhouse, before Nathan Aspinall dispatched Karel Sedlacek 6-3.
Four-time world champion Raymond van Barneveld limped out with a 6-3 defeat by Krzysztof Ratajski.
Rob Cross, Dave Chisnall and Jonny Clayton were all beaten in the afternoon session, with James Hurrell defeating former finalist Clayton with a 99.2 average.
World number six James Wade progressed with a comfortable 6-3 win over Mickey Mansell.