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World champion Luke Littler saw his Winmau World Masters hopes ended by a 4-2 defeat to Jonny Clayton in Milton Keynes.
Littler had been in blistering form at Arena MK, blitzing Andy Baetens 3-0 in his first-round match on Friday before demolishing James Wade 4-0, winning eight straight legs, to cruise into the quarter-finals.
However, Welshman Clayton, Masters champion in 2021, signalled his intent on causing an upset after taking the opening set with a 138 checkout.
After Littler responded to level the match and then claw another set back at 3-2, ‘The Ferret’ continued to score heavily, landing eight maximums, with his 60 per cent on the doubles proving crucial as the world champion’s finishing was down at just seven out of 20 attempts.
“Obviously Luke didn’t play his ‘A’ game, but it is a battle and I got over the line,” Clayton told ITV4.
“He is a cracking guy and great darts player, with a great future. He has given me a big lesson the last two games I played him, so I got one back. It went my way and it was my day.”
Defending champion Stephen Bunting also struggled on his checkouts as Dutchman Danny Noppert booked his place in Sunday’s evening session – when both the semi-finals and final will be played out – with a nerve-shredding 4-3 win after a last-leg decider.
Having found himself 3-1 down, Bunting, who picked up the Bahrain Darts Masters title after his run to the World Championship semi-finals, recovered to level up the match and force a deciding set.
Despite the backing of the crowd, Bunting missed three match darts as Noppert came back to take out double eight for a hard-earned victory.
“He had me under pressure from the off,” Bunting said. “Whether I am ahead or 10-nil down, I always believe I’ve got the game to win, but Danny was unbelievable there and kept his head at the end.”
There was, though, little such trouble for world number one Luke Humphries as he comfortably saw off Australian Damon Heta 4-1 and goes on to play Noppert for a place in the final.
Belgian Dimitri van den Bergh – who hit a nine-dart finish on his way to a thrilling 4-3 win over third seed Michael van Gerwen on Saturday – beat Nathan Aspinall 4-1 to set up a semi-final against Clayton.
