Luke Littler began his defence of the Belgian Open title with a second-round win – but four Premier League players were dumped out on Saturday.
The world champion, who won last year’s Belgian title while making his European Tour debut in Wieze, was among the 16 seeds that joined the draw in the second round.
The 18-year-old averaged 94.36 to Ryan Searle’s 95.48 but was far more efficient on the doubles, finishing with a checkout percentage of 42.9% compared to Searle’s 25% to clinch a 6-3 victory.
But four of the top 10 seeds fell at their first hurdle, including world number one Luke Humphries and three-time world champion Michael van Gerwen.
The world number three suffered the biggest shock, with Van Gerwen humbled 6-4 by unranked Croatian qualifier Boris Krcmar, 45.
Humphries and Rob Cross both claimed a nine-dart finish during Thursday’s Premier League action, while Nathan Aspinall was beaten by Littler in the final.
Humphries averaged just 92.61 on Saturday, though, as the 2024 world champion was upset 6-4 by local favourite Mike de Decker (100.45).
Ross Smith (112.60) proved too strong for world number four Cross (98.80) as he beat last year’s runner-up 6-2, while Aspinall was dealt a narrow 6-5 loss to Ritchie Edhouse.
The tournament concludes on Sunday, with Littler having a third-round game against fellow Englishman Luke Woodhouse, who beat Gary Anderson 6-2.
Gerwyn Price averaged 112.42 in his 6-2 victory over Gian van Veen and will face Damon Heta, who thrashed former world champion Michael Smith 6-0.
Besides Price and Heta, Stephen Bunting is the only other seed in the top half of the draw and his reward for beating Jermaine Wattimena 6-3 is a third-round game with Northern Ireland’s Daryl Gurney.
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