World number one Luke Humphries suffered a shock defeat to Gabriel Clemens at the Hungarian Darts Trophy, where Michael van Gerwen later landed a nine-dart finish as he coasted into the last 16.
Humphries just missed out on the PDC European Tour event title last year when beaten 8-7 in the final by Dave Chisnall, and was soon up against it when Clemens broke throw in the opening game.
Although world champion Humphries fought back to level and then lead 4-3, German Clemens broke again to edge 5-4 in front before taking victory against the darts in the deciding leg.
Clemens will face Van Gerwen in the last 16 after the Dutchman demolished Martin Lukeman 6-2 – having landed a perfect nine darts in the opening leg and averaging 104.
Peter Wright continued his fine recent form on the back of his German Darts Championship victory with a 6-0 whitewash of Australia’s Damon Heta to coast into the last 16.
Gerwyn Price, another former world champion, crashed out after Dutchman Wessel Nijman came from 5-2 down to take a last-leg decider.
Top seed Chisnall ended the hopes of Jonny Clayton – who had beaten world number two Michael Smith in his opening match – with an impressive 6-1 win, hitting an average of just over 100.
In the opening match of the evening session at the MVM Dome, Danny Noppert held off a fightback from Nathan Aspinall to win 6-4.
Ross Smith beat Raymond van Barneveld before Rob Cross celebrated his 34th birthday with a 6-1 victory over Andrew Gilding to finish off the evening action.
Earlier on Saturday, Josh Rock came from 5-2 down to beat James Wade in a final leg after ‘The Machine’ had missed eight match darts and Dutch-born Norwegian Cor Dekker hit a nine-dart finish in his 6-2 defeat by Stephen Bunting.
The last-16 games will take place on Sunday afternoon before the tournament concludes with the quarter-finals onwards into the evening session.
UK Athletics and the organisation's former head of sport Keith Davies have been charged with manslaughter over the death of Paralympian Abdullah Hayayei.Hayayei
UK Athletics Ltd and its former head of sport have been charged with manslaughter following the death of Paralympian Abdullah Haya
The UK still loves football, it turns out (EA) The demise of physical games accelerated significantly last year in the UK, as overall game reven
The Belgian Grand Prix has secured a new contract that will keep it on the Formula 1 calendar for four out of six years from 2026-2031.It is the first deal of t