Luke Littler narrowly avoided a first-round exit at the Winmau World Masters after surviving a match dart in a dramatic victory over Mike De Decker in Milton Keynes.

Littler has won six of the eight ranked PDC major TV titles over the past 12 months, including a successful World Championship title defence, but suffered a huge scare in his tournament opener at Arena MK.

The 19-year-old came close to a stunning nine-darter during a topsy-turvy contest, where De Decker won back-to-back sets but missed a match dart for a 3-1 win before Littler produced a late fightback.

Littler – who fired seven maximums and posted a 98.62 average – broke De Decker to drag the contest into a deciding set, where he won both legs to complete a 3-2 win and set up a second-round meeting with Ross Smith.

Defending champion Luke Humphries and Josh Rock both came back from a set down to beat Dave Chisnall and Connor Scutt respectively, while Danny Noppert and Stephen Bunting also made a winning start by the same margin.

Littler survives huge scare in Masters thriller

The world No 1 made an early statement with a 13-dart hold and recovered from missing set darts in the next to take the opener in a deciding leg, only for De Decker to level the match with a spectacular 121 finish on the bullseye.

Wayward finishing from Littler – who only converted six of 19 attempts at double – allowed De Decker to pinch a break on his way to claiming the third set, before the Belgian held throw in the opening leg of the next to move a leg from a famous victory.

Littler came agonisingly close to the first nine-darter of the tournament, missing D15 after eight perfect darts, then snatched the set in the next leg after De Decker squandered a match dart on D11 for a 142 finish.

De Decker never recovered from his missed opportunity, as Littler won the next two legs – in a tournament format where sets are played over the best of three legs – to continue his pursuit for one of only two missing PDC TV majors from his CV.

“That was a tough one,” Littler told ITV. “I just didn’t get going there. Mike [De Decker] deserved to win the second and third sets. I had to fight back and that’s what I done.

“A little bit [of nerves] because it’s first to two [legs per set], not first to three. I got over the line, found about a bit of form and got the win.”

More to follow…

Winmau World Masters: Saturday’s second-round schedule

Afternoon Session (1300 GMT)
Round Two x4
Best of seven sets
Damon Heta v Chris Dobey
Gary Anderson v James Wade
Gian van Veen v Nathan Aspinall
Jonny Clayton v Gerwyn Price

Evening Session (1900 GMT)
Round Two x4
Best of seven sets
Rob Cross v Josh Rock
Stephen Bunting v Danny Noppert
Luke Littler v Ross Smith
Luke Humphries v Luke Woodhouse

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