Littler is looking to keep hold of what was his maiden title on the PDC circuit, just a couple of weeks after he was crowned the youngest world champion at Alexandra Palace at just 17 years of age.
It is also the tournament at which he hit a nine-darter against Nathan Aspinall in the 2024 quarter-finals, his first of four across the year.
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The ‘Nuke’ was in control throughout his opening encounter at Bahrain International Circuit and managed to survive a mid-match fightback from Ilagan, a silky 142 checkout plus two breaks of throw helping him to wrestle back the momentum.
He will now face Gerwyn Price who put in a solid showing with a 6-3 victory over Ally Pally crowd favourite Lok Yin Lee.
The other big story of the night saw Paolo Nebrida put his name in the record books as he became only the second player from the Asian Tour to beat a PDC player on the World Series with a 6-3 win over Rob Cross.
Cross looked out of sorts and had a terrible time on the doubles, a break of throw and loss in a 29-dart leg setting him back to 3-1.
From there, Nebrida did the tough work and a clutch 116 checkout was followed by 62 on tops for a game-winning break of throw which awarded the Filipino player his own slice of darting history.
World No 1 Luke Humphries put in a stellar performance as he cruised to a 6-0 win over Abdulla Saeed.
Humphries came out ready to entertain the crowd and his checkouts of 151, 100, and 141 did just that, ‘Cool Hand’ hitting 180s with ease on the way.
Fourth seed Stephen Bunting booked a quarter-final showdown against Chris Dobey with a 6-2 domination of Nitin Kumar.
Bunting came out firing, 142 and 122 checkouts plus three big breaks of throw helping him take control and send out a statement that his form is not going anywhere after his run to the semi-finals in the World Darts Championship.
Dobey also made his mark with a 6-0 whitewash win over Basem Mahmood, while Peter Wright put in the work early on to cement a 6-3 win over Alexis Toylo and make it through the first round for a third year in a row.
The final match of the evening saw Nathan Aspinall put in a professional performance to wrap up a 6-2 victory against Xiaochen Zong.
Watch Premier League Darts 2025 live on Sky Sports every Thursday from February 6 or stream with NOW.
