Luke Humphries and Luke Littler remain on a collision course with the Players Championship final after reaching the quarter-finals on Saturday.
The second and third rounds took place in a bumper on the second day at Minehead, with reigning champion Humphries continuing his title defense.
The world number one maintained his bid to win back-to-back Players Championship finals with wins over Raymond van Barneveld and Damon Heta, beating Gabriel Clemens in a dramatic opening match.
“I felt like I had a lot more to give there,” said Humphries, who is looking forward to a showdown with Littler if both players advance to Sunday’s final.
“Luke is playing absolutely phenomenal darts right now. He’s probably the best player in the world right now, but I know he has the level to match.
“Hopefully we can get to the final and give the fans what they want, but we still have a few games to win before we can think about that. We can’t look too far into the future.”
Humphries averaged more than 102 points in a 6-3 win over Dutch icon Van Barneveld in the second round, and has won nine of his last 12 games before beating Australian number one Heta 10-6 in Saturday’s finale.
After averaging 112.73 against Rob Cross on Friday evening, Littler continued his breathtaking form with dominant wins over Ritchie Edhouse and Danny Noppert.
The newly crowned Grand Slam champion won a stunning tie with Edhouse, missing a nine-darter double of 12 in a contest in which both players averaged 105.
Littler then backed this up by beating former UK Open champion Noppert 10-3, averaging 104 and crashing seven 180s to extend his winning record to 10 matches.
“When I have these little outbursts, it feels like no one can touch me in between,” said Littler, who is currently ranked at a career high of No. 4 in the world.
“I’m really happy with the win. I played really well against Leach this afternoon and I felt comfortable tonight.”
Luke Littler extends his winning streak to 10 games by advancing to the quarterfinals of The Players Championship.
The 17-year-old is back in contention for the last quarter-finals with World Grand Prix champion Mike De Decker after the Belgian conceded just four legs in Saturday’s double-header against Ian White and Niels Zonneveld.
Ross Smith also progressed to the final with 6-1 wins over Dimitri Van den Bergh and Wesley Plaisier before beating 2023 UK Open champion Andrew Gilding 10-1.
Smith will now face Scott Williams, who reached his second TV Rankings quarterfinal with a comeback win over 2012 runner-up Kim Huybrechts and Sweden’s Jeffrey de Graaf.
Mike De Decker averaged 101 points with a six-legged blitz against Ian White in the afternoon session, before securing a convincing 10-4 win over Niels Zonneveld in the last 16.
Elsewhere, 2023 semi-finalist Ryan Joyce survived four darts against Cameron Menzies before maintaining his impressive Minehead record with a 10-6 win over Martin Schindler to set up a quarter-final against Humphries.
Joyce survived four match darts to secure a dramatic second-round tie against Cameron Menzies, before beating German number one Martin Schindler 10-6 in the last 16.
Dirk van Duijvenbode continued his resurgence with clean wins over Florian Hempel and Jermaine Wattimena before setting up a quarter-final clash with Connor Scutt. Connor Scutt advanced ahead of Mario Vandenbogaerde and 2018 champion Daryl Gurney.
Earlier in the day, world number three Michael Smith suffered a second round exit against Gurney, while Dave Chisnall and Nathan Aspinall were also eliminated at the same stage.
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