Back-to-back world champion Luke Littler made a winning start to the Bahrain Darts Masters with a dominant 6-1 victory over Paul Lim, as Luke Humphries and Gerwyn Price also progressed to the quarter-finals.
In his first appearance since successfully retaining the Sid Waddell Trophy at the Alexandra Palace on January 3, where he extended his advantage as world No 1, Littler brushed aside the fans' favourite who is 53 years his senior.
Littler - who won his first World Series of Darts title at this event in 2024 - fired a 106.5 average and posted two ton-plus finishes during a one-sided contest, where he delivered the first 'Big Fish' checkout of the tournament and converted six of his eight attempts at double.
The Nuke now faces a quarter-final showdown with Price, who beat Littler at the same stage of last year's event, after 'The Iceman' struggled past fans' favourite Motomu Sakai 6-4.
World Championship runner-up Gian van Veen thrashed Man Lok Leung 6-2 and Humphries dispatched Abdulla Saeed in straight legs for the third straight year, while Michael van Gerwen, defending champion Stephen Bunting, Danny Noppert and Nathan Aspinall also reached the last eight.
Lim missed the chance to break Littler in the opening leg but took out a 74 finish in the next to level, before 'The Nuke' took control by following his sensational 170 checkout in the third by breaking the veteran in the fourth leg with an 11-darter.
The 18-year-old added a 121 checkout to pull further ahead and didn't miss a dart at double until his match-winning leg, where he signed off victory with a 14-darter to book a meeting with Price in Friday's quarter-finals.
"Paul's been performing well for many, many years," Littler said. "He's a class act and he's still going strong, but thankfully I was able to kick on and get the win. It's always good to be back in Bahrain. This is the start of the new season for us, and you want to start the year off right, with a title."
Price needed a 107 finish to sneak a scrappy opening leg against Sakai, who broke the Welshman on multiple occasions and outscored him but saw poor finishing hamper his hopes of a famous victory.
Van Veen also capitalised on wayward scoring from Leung to reach the last eight, coming back from 2-1 down to rattle off five consecutive legs and set up an all-Dutch quarter-final with Noppert.
Bahraini Basem Mahmood won his first ever leg in the event but was thrashed 6-1 by Noppert, while fellow home favourite Saeed only had one dart at double during his straight-legs loss to Humphries.
"I'm pretty happy with my performance," admitted Humphries, who averaged 103.66 and will play Aspinall for a place in the semi-finals. "I want to come here and start the season a little bit better than I usually do, and I've tried my best to keep in the flow with my practice this year."
Aspinall edged past PDC Asian Champion Ilagan 6-4, in a repeat of their clash at last month's World Darts Championship, as Van Gerwen came back from 4-3 down to edge Alexis Toylo by the same score.
The Dutchman will continue his pursuit of a record-extending 17th World Series of Darts crown against Bunting, who benefitted from missed doubles from Ryusei Azemoto to begin his bid for back-to-back titles in Bahrain with a 6-2 success.
Quarter Finals (best of 11 legs) - from 4.15pm
Luke Littler v Gerwyn Price
Michael van Gerwen v Stephen Bunting
Luke Humphries v Nathan Aspinall
Gian van Veen v Danny Noppert
Semi-Finals - Best of 13 legs
Littler/Price v Van Gerwen/Bunting
Humphries/Aspinall v Van Veen/Noppert
Final - Best of 15 legs
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