Dutch Darts Masters: World finalists Luke Littler and Luke Humphries to meet again in quarter-finals
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Luke Littler came into the Dutch Masters as the number one seed
Teenager Luke Littler and Luke Humphries both won to set up a repeat of the World Championship final in the quarter-finals of the Dutch Masters.
Littler, who shot to prominence with his run to the World final on debut, beat Dutchman Dirk van Duijvenbode 6-2 despite being far from his best.
The 17-year-old is looking to follow up winning his first PDC senior title at the Bahrain Masters last week.
Humphries then demolished Jermaine Wattimena 6-0 to set up Saturday's tie.
"I'm happy with the way I played," Littler told ITV. "I'm happy with my scoring and my finishing.
"In practice nothing was going, but I've always said that I always feel like I throw well on stage. I'm just glad I can have a bad practice but produce onstage."
Littler has prepared for this event by returning to a darts academy in his hometown Warrington before visiting the Manchester United training ground and playing darts against England defender Harry Maguire and Denmark's Christian Eriksen.
There were a few boos for Littler as he waited at the end of the walk-on, but he showed his usual composure by cupping his ears with a smile on his face.
He settled straight into the game with a 180 on his way to winning the first leg, before breaking Van Duijvenbode's throw.
The pair then exchanged breaks before successive holds left Littler one leg from victory.
A superb 150 checkout sealed a comfortable victory, but with his average down at 90.85 he is likely going to need to improve significantly to beat world number one Humphries.
Crewe-born Humphries also played within himself, failing to hit a single 180, but had far too much quality for Wattimena.
Home players shock PDC 'superstars'
Last week's opening World Series event in Bahrain saw all eight PDC 'superstars' progress through the first round, but the opening two games of the night ensured that was not the case in Den Bosch.
World number four Nathan Aspinall and two-time world champion Peter Wright were outclassed, both losing 6-2 to Danny Noppert and Kevin Doets respectively in front of a jubilant crowd.
Wales' Gerwyn Price ended the run with a 6-3 win over defending Dutch Masters champion Dimitri van den Bergh, but 21-year-old Gian van Veen then shocked a below-average Michael Smith to win 6-3.
Van Veen, like Doets, is playing in his first World Series event and lost to Littler in the World Youth Championship final in November.
The Dutch domination continued as five-time world champion Raymond van Barneveld recovered from going an early break down to beat Rob Cross in a final-leg decider, ensuring at least one Dutch player will be in the final.
Michael van Gerwen then won 6-1 in an all-Dutch affair against best friend and the best man at his wedding, Vincent van der Voort.
The tournament concludes with the quarter-finals, semi-finals and final on Saturday from 18:00 GMT, with live text commentary on the BBC Sport website and app and live TV coverage on ITV3.
Dutch Masters schedule
Quarter-finals (best of 11 legs)
Luke Littler v Luke Humphries (from 18:15 GMT)
Gerwyn Price v Kevin Doets
Michael van Gerwen v Raymond van Barneveld
Gian van Veen v Danny Noppert
Semi-finals (best of 13 legs)
Order of games to be confirmed
Littler/Humphries v Price/Doets
Van Gerwen/Van Barneveld v Van Veen/Noppert
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