Luke Littler set up a blockbuster showdown with world No 1 Luke Humphries at the European Darts Grand Prix in Germany after breezing through his opening match on Friday night.

Littler swept Germany’s Arno Merk 6-0 while averaging 101 and will now face Humphries in the last 32 in a repeat of January’s World Championship final, which Humphries won 7-4 in sets.

Littler and Humphries will clash on Saturday night in Sindelfingen, with defending champion Rob Cross, Michael van Gerwen, Gerwyn Price and Michael Smith also in action that day as the 16 seeded players begin their tournaments in the second round.

Round three takes place on Sunday afternoon before the quarter-finals, semi-finals and final are staged later that evening.

Daryl Gurney, Brendan Dolan and Raymond van Barneveld were among the round-one winners on Friday night – Van Barneveld will now face Smith in the next stage

But Peter Wright squandered two match darts in the decider to lose 6-5 to Mickey Mansell, while 2022 Masters champion Joe Cullen was knocked out by Johan Engstrom as he missed out on a second-round meeting with Van Gerwen.

Nathan Aspinall, who won Night 12 of Premier League Darts in Rotterdam on Thursday, has opted out of the tournament for personal reasons, while reigning UK Open champion Dimitri Van den Bergh is absent through illness.

European Darts Grand Prix – round one results

• Jeffrey Sparidaans 6-1 Callan Rydz
• Keane Barry 6-5 Stephen Burton
• Scott Williams 6-1 Niko Springer
• Brendan Dolan 6-4 Andrew Gilding
• Luke Woodhouse 6-4 Martin Lukeman
• Johan Engstrom 6-1 Joe Cullen
• Christian Perez 6-4 Niels Zonneveld
• Daryl Gurney 6-2 Jose de Sousa
• Ritchie Edhouse 6-2 James Wade
• Stephen Bunting 6-1 Romeo Grbavac
• Raymond van Barneveld 6-2 Franz Roetzsch
• Chris Dobey 6-1 Ian White
• Arno Merk 6-0 Luke Littler
• Martin Schindler 6-2 Gian van Veen
• Peter Wright 5-6 Mickey Mansell
• Gabriel Clemens 6-1 Rene Eidams

European Darts Grand Prix – round two fixtures

• Krzysztof Ratajski vs Scott Williams
• Ross Smith vs Luke Woodhouse
• Ryan Searle vs Stephen Bunting
• Dirk van Duijvenbode vs Ritchie Edhouse
• Danny Noppert vs Daryl Gurney
• Jonny Clayton vs Chris Dobey
• Dave Chisnall vs Keane Barry
• Josh Rock vs Jeffrey Sparidaans
• Gary Anderson vs Christian Perez
• Gerwyn Price vs Brendan Dolan
• Michael Smith vs Raymond van Barneveld
• Damon Heta vs Mickey Mansell
• Rob Cross vs Martin Schindler
• Michael van Gerwen vs Johan Engstrom
• Luke Humphries vs Luke Littler
• Ricardo Pietreczko vs Gabriel Clemens

What else do I need to know?

Cross defeated Humphries 8-6 in the 2023 final, after Humphries had edged Cross 8-7 to win the 2022 edition.

The 2024 tournament is the fourth leg of this year’s PDC European Tour with Littler (Belgian Darts Open), Humphries (German Darts Grand Prix) and Martin Schindler (International Darts Open) triumphing in the first three events.

Leg five, the Austrian Darts Open, takes place in Graz between Friday April 26 and Sunday April 28, with Jonny Clayton the defending champion after seeing off Josh Rock in the 2023 final.

Watch Night 13 of Premier League Darts, in Liverpool, live on Sky Sports Arena from 7pm on Thursday April 25 or stream with NOW.

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